You have probably read one of those Manager e-mails that go out once in a while in bigger organizations:

I am sorry to announce that John Doe has decided to leave Acme Inc and I wish him the best of luck taking on new challenges and opportunities.

It could mean anything of course, from John Doe is going to jail to John Doe got fired to John Doe has just decided to leave the building.

I am leaving the building in a couple of weeks. I am not going to jail, I wasn’t fired, I just decided it was time to leave the building focusing on the stuff I have always wanted to focus on, building up my own company and trying to bring in enough money to keep me and my family running. The bills will still be there and I need to get up and running pretty quick.

My findings in this process are more or less the same as I had when I decided 2 years ago that I was going to build our house myself. First there are a lot of brain ghosts you have to fight:

• What happens if [any threat you can think of]
• Maybe it is a stupid idea to [big project of any kind]
• I will never have it as good as I have now [panic in any way you see fit]

The house stands on solid ground, we have a warm and nice house to live in, I wouldn’t say that it is 100% done, there are still things to fix and polish on but it is a functional house and it was one hell of a project to take on, but the project was of the kind I need, a project that mustn’t fail. What would have had happened if I in the middle of the house building project just gave up? We would be in a big mess on all levels. Those circumstances kept me going even though there were times during the project I did not sleep more than a couple of hours a night because of all the fears and thoughts about stuff that could go wrong. Thinking back, I cant see any item that went wrong, it just took another direction than I had expected, sometimes for the better, sometimes for worse, always more expensive though.

Learnings from that is of course that you shouldn’t think on all the stuff that could go wrong because it is better to deal with problems when they occur and the worst thing that can happen is often manageable.

I am now in front of a similar project, building my own business and taking my first steps moving away from the monthly salary life, but I try to have the house building project in mind and just focus on the stuff that I really need to do and try to actually solve the problems when they come or adapt if they are of the non-solvable type.

I am going to get this stuff running, it is going to one hell of a ride and I hope I do not have to see any more Middle Management E-mail Templates being sent out about seeking new challenges after mine has been sent out in a couple of weeks.

And by the way, I am always looking for people to work with in any way, starting stuff up, freelancing. Just pitch a good idea or project and I will listen.

Until next time, just do it and think “What is the worst thing that can happen”