Changes

Everyone wants it, very few of us actually like it when it happens.

Change

I think that if you ask 100 people if the like “change” 90% would tell you that they are in favour and they actually seek change in their lives and work.

The reality is that very often change “happens” and we are not ready for it. Sometimes change is imposed from other people and we are just not happy with it, instead of embracing something new and potentially good, we prefer to stick to what we know already, even if it doesn’t make us happy.

It’s a very serious and difficult struggle, I believe that every one of us has gone through it, more than once in his/her life.

I think that I am quite resistant to change, especially when it leads to unknown paths, very different from the ones that I walked before. On the other side some of the decisions and the things that I made in my life  are totally “change oriented”, sometimes quite violent changes (like deciding to go and live abroad at the age of 18).

Recently I was confronted with one of those life changing moments, work related. My generation was born in an economic environment where work was always available, where people would define themselves with the fact that they were employed, and being employed was more than just a job, meant friends, great colleagues and so on. My parents worked in the public sector as professors, so they never had an actual issue with job stability or safety.

Recently I have had quite an ordeal in terms of career choices, I was forced out of a company that I really liked, I joined an old company that I really disliked to eventually end up in a very small company where I thought I could make a huge difference but unfortunately the mentality and company culture were too narrow. The right man for the wrong job at the wrong time…

As I love to do my job properly, not being able to work like I think I should do, and having to take orders from people that clearly did not know where the hell they were going, started to affect my well being, getting me extremely nervous, losing sleep and generally being unhappy.

This is why since last week I have decided to resign from the position and for the first time in my life I am unemployed by choice with no backup job ready to kick in the following month.

It was not an easy decision for me, but in the end I decided not to endure with this crappy situation. Of course the family resources will be stretched, I have saved a little and I am resolute to take a little sabbatical break from the “rat race”. I need to recharge after 17 years of work non-stop.

Investing-wise nothing much will change, apart from the fact that I will not be saving anymore, or not as much, so the money that I can put into the fund are probably going to be close to zero in the near future. This is not a tragedy as the Long Haul Portfolio will stand a harder test in terms of YoY growth, but I am sure it can do well.

Of course this opens up a lot more opportunities that I could not look into before. I want to start studying Finance again (derivatives and Options mostly), I want to start looking for a possible career change (I can’t be on planes anymore, I have travelled really a LOT), I want to start hanging out with my father and family more (as I was always away for work). It’s all about quality of living in the end, and that was what got me to take this step. I have sacrificed it to get coloured pieces of paper (money), and I missed out on many things. No regrets of course, I am happy at what I did, but now it’s time for a change. 🙂

Finger crossed and let’s hope for the best!

 

P.S.

Career-wise I did change something already turning down a job offer for my usual line of work (International Trade/Business development and Export), and accepted a position at a University in Florence to teach Fashion Sales Management. The position is great but it pays close to nothing, so more “work” will have to be done, but it’s a start, a new opportunity (and the idea that someone is going to call me “Professor” it’s quite intriguing). 🙂