Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Taking the Leap

In the midst of sleepless nights before investor-filled presentations, meeting after meeting with potential customers, and working on building a sustainable company, I was offered an opportunity to be the "opening act" at the inaugural 6ixth City Tech Fest.  It wasn't easy to be the first speaker of the day, preceding successful entrepreneurs like Kendall Wouters and Doug Hardman-- but I tried.

My speech was on "Taking the Leap" -- i.e., what it means to quit your day job and become a full-time entrepreneur.  If this sounds like it's a sexy proposition and images from The Social Network are popping into your mind, please get that smug mug of Jesse Eisenberg-as-Mark Zuckerberg out of your head.

Believe me when I say that taking that leap is anything but sexy:

It's stressful.  It causes you to question your talents and abilities.  It keeps you up at night.  It causes strain on personal relationships.

On the other hand, it takes you on emotional highs (and lows).  It's exciting.  It can be rewarding...maybe even (someday) lucrative...if you're lucky.

Being in the process of taking that very leap, though, let me caution you up front and let you know that it's not for everybody.  The speech I gave at 6ixth City outlined important topics that everybody should keep in mind when they are considering taking that leap.  In my next post, I'll cover the first of those topics.  You might want to wait on taking that leap until you hear what I have to say...

Next Post:  "Don't Quit Your Day Job."