It’s Not You….It’s ME

I think I used that excuse once when breaking up with a girl. However, when it comes to leaving an employer, that’s another story.

Over at Techcrunch Michael Arrington has an interesting post about a “group” created by Google HR for people to post about why they’re leaving Google for other employers. What’s interesting isn’t so much the reasons (e.g., low pay, cutting back of perks, “in the box” thinking – though that IS interesting) as the psychological effects of the decision. As one respondent stated:

“Those of us who failed to thrive at Google are faced with some pretty serious questions about ourselves. Just…Google is supposed to be some kind of Nirvana, so if you can’t be happy there how will you ever be happy? It’s supposed to be the ultimate font of technical resources, so if you can’t be productive there how will you ever be productive?”

That’s pretty intense, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable with building a corporate culture to the point where the decision to leave is followed by years of therapy, counseling and prescription drug dependency. It’s great to love where you work, but to do that to the detriment of your self esteem is a bit suspect.

Many people have left successful companies and been just as successful, if not more so. Look at Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Bucheit and Sanjeev Singh – they are the former Googlers who founded FriendFeed – the de facto standard for social networking aggregation. What about Mark Messier, who was traded by Edmonton Oilers to the New York Rangers – and in the process added to New York sports legend by guaranteeing a victory in Game 6 of the 1994 Stanley Cup. With the Rangers down 3-2 in the series, Messier then backed up his guarantee by scoring a natural hat trick in the game. The Rangers went on to win Game 7 and hoist Lord Stanley’s trophy.

Look, a job is just that, a job. It doesn’t define who you are, it’s just a means to an end. Sure, there is some “carte blanche” that goes with your “team” – whether that is a literal professional sports team or the company you’re working for – but leaving that team doesn’t mean you’re any less important, less skilled, or that you lack some inherent quality to be successful. As noted, in some cases, it means just the reverse.

Actually leaving a company can mean actual advancement of a career versus moving to just another job, especially when you’re leaving a company that has built a huge cult of personality, something commonplace in the tech industry. There’s no penalty for making a decision to move on – either personally or professionally.  Sometimes you need to “Just Do It”.

Don't "Resolutionize" - Rather REVOLUTIONIZE!

The new year is rife with pundits' expositions on their New Year's resolutions. Personally, there's only so many times I can tell myself (and anyone else interested enough to ask) that I'm going to exercise more and lose weight, or stop drinking "Mountain Dew", or that I'm going to finally take the dive and learn how to play that bass guitar. I"ve only ever been successful ONCE in living up to a New Year's Resolution: That was to quit smoking, and even then it took eight years to accomplish.

Therefore, rather than vow to follow some redundant "resolutions", I vow, instead, to engage in "revolutions" this year!

How will accomplish this Sisyphean task?

1. Step outside my comfort zone and do something that is a bit risque - at least for me. Take the meaning of this as you will, but for me it means being a little less calculating in things. A minor example would be in my blogging: Rather than plan out a post for a week or so, do more "stream-of-consciousness" stuff. Maybe add video or audio. Maybe offer my services to a third party and be a guest blogger on a site like the WHIR.

2. Be more opinionated. Believe it or not I've been criticized for having an opinion on things but not making that opinion heard. Therefore, I need to have more conversations with leadership, more calls or emails - don't sit on the "next great idea", actually discuss it with someone. And when I say "leadership", I'm talking Newtek leadership: Barry, C.J., et. al. That also means fix more broken windows in our forums :).

3. Don't wait - participate. Sort of hand-in-hand with the first two, but I need to get more involved outside of the NTS environment: post in forums, hit a local users group or four, maybe a dreaded Better Business Bureau monthly "technology leadership" meeting. Then again, maybe it's as simple as striking up a friendship with someone whose blog I read, or who I follow on Twitter.

4. Grow and improve - take a class or attend a seminar on something odd: origami, eastern religion (DISCLAIMER: I do not mean eastern religion itself is odd, but me taking a class on it would be), ballroom dancing. Again, trying to stick with a "revolutionary" theme, so why stop and learning more about writing, or technology, or anything else that surrounds me on a day-to-day basis? Expand horizons, self improve, carpe diem, that sort of thing.

5. Don't just live - actually exist! This goes for everything, both personally and professionally. In the immortal words of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: "Some may never live, but the crazy never die."

Okay, so I'm no Che, but for me those are fairly lofty goals as we gently slide into a new year. Hey, this is the era of Change:  ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCION!