Today I Made the Leap

I just resigned my position.

I work for a large company. I have a nice window office, a great salary, excellent benefits, and dozens of great colleagues. I'm not overworked. My schedule is flexible.

But today I gave all that up. On August 1, I will wake up for the first time in my career without a paycheck from a salary. Sure, I have 3-4 months of work lined up to cover the bills, but beyond that, it's an abyss.

My chances of success equal those of failure, but I know I need this change at this point in my career. I need more uncertainty, I’ve certainly become stagnant. I need more freedom -- being chained to a desk (well, ok, not exactly chained, I do have a lot of flexibility, as I said) stifles me. I need to do something where the time between start and finish is fathomable, and doesn't need 27 different approvals from 13 different people. I need to get back to innovation. Somewhere where a simple reporting project isn't estimated at 1000 hours.

I guess what I'm looking for is to rediscover my love of work. Lately I've noticed myself become that jaded guy, the one who dreads Mondays and always cracks those "another day another dollar" jokes. It's not me -- I need to be proud and fulfilled in my work. It takes up so much of my waking time it would be a shame for it not to be.

What am I going to do? I have about 400 hours of work lined up over through the end of the year, which will pay the bills (and my COBRA health insurance -- $900 a month!!!!!!). That gives me at least 100 hours a month for business development. I need to build out a full service commercial photography and design business. I want to bring open source software to technically challenged small businesses.

I will use this blog as the record of my journey. Will I succeed? Will I fail? Will I stop blogging because my computers are repossessed and I'm living in a box?

Stay Tuned.