The Decision Of A Lifetime

“Recognize that you have arrived in your current circumstances because of the decisions you have or have not made, because of the actions you have or have not taken.  Making new decisions and following them up with action gives you the power to change your life.”

Laurence Boldt – “How To Find The Work You Love”

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I’ve been waiting a long time to write this post. I’ve rolled the words over in my head hundreds of times over the past 3 months. How exactly to share this news with you.

I introduced it on Friday in a post called Change The Pattern For Your Work And Life.  In that post, I encouraged you to think about whether you were somehow stuck.  In a job, career or life situation that was not working.  Not easy to do.  Even once you figure out what exactly you want to adjust.  And how, by “pressing the brakes”, we can change our environment.

At first the announcement was going to be a really big deal. Because it is to me. But then I realized that this site is about your needs – not mine.  So this is less of a grand pronouncement and more of an FYI.

After two years of writing and creating here, I am ready to get serious.

The news:

I officially made the move. And have decided to do this full time. My last day at the food company was about two weeks ago.

This is a big deal for me. Something I never thought I would do. If you’ve been a reader here for a while, you might know that I have always been conservative about career choices.

But what does “this” mean you may ask?

It means I will become a full-time blogger, content creator and social entrepreneur.  Focusing on job search, career and life strategy.  As well as small business marketing strategy.

I will not be career coaching or writing resumes.  If you need an expert, I can connect you with some very smart people.  In fact, all you need to do is search the career expert directory to find a great resource.

“How did I get here?” you might ask.  Especially if you’ve thought about moving away (someday) from a corporate desk.

Here are some key dates that led me to this decision.  To resign my day job.

1. My 2007 Job Search: I characterize those four months as the best of my life.  Because I took full advantage of my transition to pursue long held passions that I left smoldering in my idea book.  Out of the 40 ideas in the book, I chose 3 to pursue.  The first was a product to solve dry mouth in runners called “Frog Spit”.  While this one is not dead, I worked it long enough to realize it wasn’t the right one (for now).  The remaining 37 I would eventually give to the world (see below).  Since I knew I either couldn’t or wouldn’t launch them.  Also during these four months, I re-learned the value of networking and helping others.

2.  September 1, 2008: After 9 months in the new job.  I sat down one Labor Day morning.  And took action on the remaining two ideas.  I started writing two blogs.  “Spin Strategy – Tools for Intelligent Job Search” and “Quixoting – A Quest for New Ideas“.  I wrote on both blogs nearly every day for three months.  A ton of work but an absolute blast.  If you want to see any of the 37 ideas I gave away, click the link above or go directly to my idea book where I’ve shared them all for anyone who wants to launch them (just keep scrolling down to see them all).

3.  January 1, 2010: I made some significant changes in focus and strategy.  First, I decided to shift nearly my entire focus away from Quixoting to spend my time on this blog.  And to do that right, I knew I had to change my strategy.  So I moved from TypePad to WordPress, changed from spin strategy to Tim’s Strategy, opened the scope to include “career and life”, and launched a brand new url.  It was a ton of work – like starting from scratch – but I loved the challenge of creating anew.

I’ve also had some great influences.  People and books that have helped me down this path.

• My wonderful wife and kids who put up (sort of) with all the time online.  While I tried to keep it mostly during their sleeping hours, I often did not.  They understand this need I have to walk a new path and have been very supportive.

• Matt Crane, my technical lifeline, is a brilliant web and SEO guy.  He owns c4 Development and gets the credit for fixing everything I’ve broken over the past two years.

• Lani Merlina does all my design and creative work.  She made all the ebooks, logos and created the new site design.  Which I love.  Lani owns, you guessed it, Merlina Design.

• Some great books helped me along the way.  Some long term influences as well as others that helped me think through my specific decision.  They include a great book by Bob Buford called “Halftime” which asks you to consider changing the focus of your life from success to significance.  Another is by Laurence Boldt called “How To Find The Work You Love”.  And “Escape from Cubicle Nation” by Pamela Slim. You can find them along with many more great titles on the new career books page.

But the truth is that the desire to do this has been in my bones for a very long time.  A desire to play a bigger role in the world vs. only a bigger role at a corporation.  And to use my love of writing in a more purposeful way.

So now it is my turn to deliver against this dream.

• To live out my own advice.
• To take big action on my ideas
• To do something hard

And to get out and start selling myself.  Just like many of you are doing right now.  As you look for a job.

So we are kind of in this thing together.

Oh, and in case you are wondering.  Everything on the site today will remain free.  And I will keep adding free content, tools and templates as often as I can.  Because I know that being out of work means that you are cash-sensitive.  But don’t be surprised if you start seeing a few ideas popping up that aren’t free.

I will make you this promise though.  They will be worth every penny.  And I will be here to back them up.  As I have done for the past two years.

With a smile.

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