tldr: I quit my boring accounting job to work for myself. Yay millenial entrepreneurship. *pats self on back *increases all the self-esteems [but seriously people, live your dreams! its awesome] [also, many thought asides will follow. Oh, and sometimes my grammar is on point, sometimes its only kinda good]
One month ago today I quit my corporate job to start a business with two of my best friends. I was going to start a blog to chronicle the endeavor and then today I stumbled across Steemit. So here we are, together.
I worked four years as a public accountant, as an auditor and then as a mergers and acquisition consultant. I very much enjoyed the people I worked with and often the companies I helped explore as a consultant. However the work was uninspired and less than fulfilling.
Even in the early days of the accounting career [side note, we should come up with a new word to describe a short career - longer than a "gig" but shorter than a full blown "career." Gigeer? Carig? Steemers - other ideas, any linguists out there?] I had the seeds planted of wanting to start my own venture. I would go to lunch and spend the whole time wondering what the nice lady with the Korean BBQ food truck did before she started feeding the herd of worker bees in downtown DC [mixing metaphors, I know]. Then I'd retreat back to the office and spend some free time in the evening throwing together a food truck business plan. Most of those ideas were never very serious. It was a way for me to satisfy the itch I suppose.
As my carig progressed [for the love! please somebody solve this] it became more apparent that I wasn't long for the world of public accounting. The last two years, I spent working on mergers and acquisitions, which meant that each month I focused on a separate company and helped them progress through the sale process. I watched, amazed at the successful businesses that had been created were sold off one by one. Nutritional meal delivery service? Check. Toilets and bathtub manufacturer? Check. Carbon fiber for bows and arrows? Check. Doors for grocery stores? Check. [ok, seriously, who looked around and thought, I'm going to build a company that makes grocery store doors? I know a guy...] I was blown away by the businesses with which I interacted. I kept returning to the thought of "someday, this could be me." Eventually, the dreamer overtook the rationally trained accountant within. Now I wake up everyday and create my future. Now, instead of thinking it could be me, I'm working hard to ensure that it IS me, or rather, it will be. Business creation is not as fast as all the blogs out there lead to you believe. Or those FedEx commercials with the 80's song montages and what not. [FedEx has been quite helpful though. And I'm not even in the consumer products industry so we don't use them for shipping or anything. Just lots of lamination. I digress].
I'm gonna wrap this post up. It's already been long enough. Message for today is, if you're dreaming about it, why not just go for it? I'm a month in and haven't regretted it for a moment. If a meek, conservative, timid accountant can make the jump, so can you! What's holding you back?