Risky Business

About a week ago I was talking to someone about how I left the corporate world to become a business owner. He responded by saying that he respected me for taking that kind of risk. That wasn’t the first time that I’d had that kind of response. Usually they’ll say that I’m lucky that I’m able to work from home, or that I’m brave to have taken such a risk.

It all depends on how you define risk. I didn’t just get up one day and decide to quit my job.

I’d been nurturing the idea over several years. When I finally picked the date to leave my full-time position, I gave myself about 1 year to prepare. I set goals, paid off bills and prepared myself for my next move. Sure, even with planning it’s still a risk to be self employed, but for me it was also a risk to remain an employee. Each company I’ve worked for has had major layoffs. The bottom line for me was accepting that my corporate jobs weren’t as secure as they had been in the past.

Each person has to decide what they’re willing to put on the line in order to make a change. Yes, making a career change can be a risk, but for me it was a bigger risk to stay where I was. I risked looking back one day years from now, and wondering why I hadn’t tried.