Hey hey!!! Happy Monday :)
Big life changes require short blog posts. Writing is a muscle - one that I haven’t flexed in a while. It’s hard to get started again :)
The last few weeks have been a blur. It all started with an unexpected but really exciting job offer. Along with it came a week of emotional decision making and turbulence.
The question was simple … should I stay or should I go?
Stay.
For context, I loved my job. Working at CareEvolution was one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received. Stepping off the common path and wandering into a world I knew nothing about showed me possibilities for a career that I never imagined could exist. It was the kickstart for a choose your adventure career.
CareEvolution was an anomaly in the real world. We had no managers, no “teams”, no specific roles or titles. We had a guiding strategy, but day to day, we, the employees, were encouraged to find problems we found interesting and solve them.
A few of the values that were engrained in the culture:
The top priorities are always building superior product and providing white glove service.
We work to live, not live to work.
Nothing we do is THAT important. You, the person, are more important than your work, the job.
Over the last 4.5 years, I was given nearly unlimited responsibility and opportunity. I ran multi-million dollar accounts. I worked on projects across every function and business unit. My direct work led to guidelines coming out of the FDA and CDC. I came in knowing that I could do things. I would be leaving having found out that I could think and lead.
I hear about golden handcuffs all the time. I had them. Top of market pay, work and lifestyle flexibility, respect, and influence. It wouldn’t be easy to leave.
Evaluation Framework
I began using this framework for evaluating a job during my early days at CareEvolution. Let’s break a job down into a few components:
functional (do you like the problems you’re solving)
tactical (do you like the things you do and people you work with on the day to day)
vertical (do you like the things that the company is working on strategically)
I didn’t join CareEvolution for the vertical. I didn’t know anything about healthcare and wasn’t particularly interested in it. I had always been more excited about hardware and consumer products.
What drew me in and kept me engaged for so long was the amount of flexibility I was able to have in the day to day on what I worked on and the diversity of problems I was able to solve. I learned a ton. I accomplished a lot.
The bonus was that, over time, I found the projects we were working on to be really important. At scale, I believed our tools could help people become healthier and happier.
I frequently advised friends that as long as you’ve got 2 of the 3, you might as well stick in the job. I had 2.5.
Go!
About a year and a half ago, I felt that I had achieved subject matter expertise in our platform. In the day to day, my learning had slowed because I had already gone so deep in the product, technology, and capabilities. I could architect any solution that came my way. I began experiencing periods of low intellectual stimulation more and more frequently.
I attempted a few different pivots to “shake things up and stir the pot.” I tried working with different people, getting exposure to other parts of the business, solving less technical projects and thinking at a high level, but things weren’t sticking.
I began to think that the natural next step was to become an industry expert. I hoped that the journey to get there would bring new challenges that would tickle my brain. After multiple attempts, I found that momentum kept stalling and I didn’t have the enthusiasm to keep things moving. I began to lose confidence that this was an industry that I would have long term prospects in.
The souring on the vertical aspect of my job began to impact my tactical day to day work. The real warning sign for me was that my life outside of work was beginning to be impacted as well.
Despite this, I continued to stick around at CareEvolution because I didn’t have strong conviction about what could come next. I continued to make attempts to mix things up and keep life interesting hoping that I could crack the case. I wanted to stay!
I always told people it would take something really special for me to give up what I had at CareEvolution. Many ideas came through the my head and captured my attention for brief periods of time: connected HVAC, transportation infrastructure, climate tech, planting trees. These interests were fleeting. The momentum always dissipated.
A New Opportunity
Substack had recommended a new podcast and I was heading out on a couple hour drive. I thought I would try it out and learned about a new distributed energy storage company.
I was intrigued by the podcast. I found the mechanics driving electrification and energy volatility complex and interlinked. I didn’t really believe the thesis that was laid out by the startup on this podcast and I felt curious enough to try to disprove it.
I got deep enough to start monitoring real-time energy prices in different geographies. I was reviewing my physics, so that I could understand grid dynamics and energy requirements. I ended up coming to the conclusion found that despite all the technology improvements happening around energy, infrastructure was going to be a bottleneck.
I was excited enough about diving in to actually get a friend of a friend reach out to a distant acquaintance to learn more about what this startup was doing.
One thing led to another. I got interviewed. I flew out and met the team. Throughout the process, my excitement didn’t waver. That was a strong signal.
I think I knew what I had to do.
Let’s Do It :)
After I made the decision to leave, the tears came … hard. Not because I thought I was making the wrong decision, but because of the grief. Of losing a work community who was so kind, caring, and loving. Who took care of me and treated me like family. That trusted me and created an environment in which I could grow and blossom. Leaving felt like I was turning my back on my family.
In my head, I had just started a new chapter by settling down into NYC with an 18 month lease. I was enjoying the life I had. I was going to be giving up a lot: flexibility, influence, camaraderie, money, a beautiful apartment, my garden.
The new opportunity would require that I move to Austin, where I’d work in-person 5 days a week. Hours would be long and pressure would be high.
I was excited too! About a new working environment with different types of people, in-person relationships, a jolt of excitement from solving interesting problems with cool people.
Shortly after getting the offer, my gut told me that I was going to take the job. I wondered why even when all the conventional markers suggested I shouldn’t.
This wasn't an easy decision. It was very emotional. I had many tough conversations and hours of back and forth. This wasn’t just changing jobs. This was about changing life. The exercise required me to dig deep to figure out what was important.
At the end of the day, I chose to double down on the version of me that I like best. The one that is optimizing for new experience, new learning, and new stimulation. The one that wants to play and learn and do hard things. The rest will follow. I just want to tickle my brain.
Let’s go build this thing!
Don’t forget to smile today :)
Thejas
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