Letting Go of a Job or Business

Are you happy with either your job, career or the business you own?  If so, that is great, and I want to congratulate you because you are in a much better position in that regard than most people today.

Very early in my life, I learned this important lesson.  When I was an engineering student in Germany, two semesters were internships.  The first was right at the beginning of the program and I had the wonderful opportunity to live in Paarl in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.  I was the first student from my engineering school who went overseas for his internship, which was a very exciting opportunity.

Initially, the job was interesting, and I learned many new things, but soon it became boring and I felt I was just doing the same things over and over. I felt that I was just used as cheap labor.  The work environment was not friendly, people were pressured to work a lot of overtime.  Machines we built for the wine industry had to be completed before the wine harvest, it was crunch time. Of the fifteen people working there, more than half quit during the first 10 weeks I was there.  Even though I was not happy how the internship went, I thought I had to stick with it; what else was I supposed to do?  I needed to complete six months of practical machine shop experience as a prerequisite to start the engineering course work.  Where else could I complete the requirement before the next semester started?  Even if I found a place, it had to be approved by the college administration.  Those were the days before the internet; I could not just Google and communicate with overseas, and overseas phone calls were too expensive, about one dime for every 2 seconds. Also, I felt that I had some obligation towards my mother’s uncle who had connected me with the owner of the company I worked for. I did not want him to look bad, because I got the job based on his recommendation and then it could look like I was not following through. As you can see, there were many obstacles in my mind which prevented me from leaving the place.

Then tragedy struck and my uncle, a farmer in the neighboring country of Namibia, South West Africa was killed in a helicopter crash.  That shook me to the core and made me assess my situation.  I had what some call mortality motivation.  Ironically this uncle was the son of my mother’s uncle who had recommended me to the owner of the company I did the internship with.  I thought that life was too short to waste on an internship, in which I didn’t learn much, which I didn’t enjoy, and where I only received minimum wage!  I started to think what I could do to move forward, who could I talk to?

One of the men who had worked for the company, a draftsman, was married to the lady who cut my hair.  I talked to her about the situation and of course she understood why I wanted to leave the company; her husband had also quit just a few weeks before. She invited me to talk to her husband.  When I told him about my situation, he hooked me up with another machine building company he had worked for in the past, which called me in for an interview right away and offered me another job as an engineering intern.  I quit my job with the first company that same week, a week after my uncle died.  The new company was very nice to work for, gave me a lot of good experiences and even a bonus before I left.

It took a tragedy to shake me up, to take a step back, look at my situation and say, this needs to change.

Does it have to take a tragedy, like the one that shook me up, to make a positive change or a move?  Do we have to wait until we’re so stressed and get a heart attack?

Sometimes we feel we have no options as we have obligations to meet, mouths to feed, mortgages to pay.  And we tell ourselves things which are not true.  My mother’s uncle completely understood and -contrary to what I had feared- he did not hold it against me at all when I left the company, he had hooked me up with.  Having just lost one of his sons put things into a different perspective for him as well.  But sometimes, we are just in a rut and in a strange way, our uncomfortable situation becomes our comfort zone.

Sometimes we need to seriously consider our job or business situation.  Doing some brainstorming and research, and finding out what all your options are, is a necessary step in helping us get out of a rut. Letting go of a job or selling or closing a business can free us up to do what we are meant to do and be somewhere where we can contribute and feel good about it.

Making a move or making a change can be daunting and overwhelming, thus more uncomfortable as staying where we are in the short term.  It takes courage to pursue what is important, meaningful, and fulfilling in our lives.  We need to periodically take a step back, look at the big picture, and make choices.

Questions to ask yourself:

·         Do I want to avoid the short-term discomfort of making a change and end up with the long-term pain of regret by not making a move?  Or do I want to summon the courage to leave my comfort zone for long term fulfillment and meaning in life?

·         Does the stress and the time required to maintain my status quo rob me of good relationships, good health and happiness? 

·         Is it time to evaluate my situation and consider leaving?  Even if the business or the job pays well? What am I sacrificing? 

·         In evaluating our business, we need to ask ourselves some serious questions and be brutally honest with ourselves. What is the purpose of my business?

·         Do I feel like I am a slave to my business?  Do I own the business or does the business own me?

·         If we inherited a business, we need to ask: do I enjoy it, or do I just keep up a family tradition?  Even if we are happy, we should not expect that from our children, if they do not want the business or if they do not have the talent or passion for it that we do.

·         Does the business serve the purpose of my life?   Do I have a passion for it or feel like it serves my calling? 

·         What is the contribution to my family and/or community?

·         Does the business leave me time for other things in my life that are important to me?

·         Is my business an excuse for a workaholic tendency?  Am I trying to escape something by pouring myself excessively into my business at the expense of other things I need to pay attention to?

© On Eagles Wings, LLC