I’m not sure if it was that my dreams started getting too stress-filled or just that the weather started to get a bit nicer in Seattle (I think sunset reached 5:30pm again!), but I’m starting to ramp up my career-discovery phase. It is still a bit all over the board (ranging from buying franchise, to starting something new, to financial planning, to joining a small start-up), but it is also accelerating — seems like every day has some networking, research, and discovery type activities in it; and, I’m finding myself working from early morning until late at night — not sure if that’s a good, or bad, sign 🙂
As a quick update on what’s been happening in our lives:
– All week, last week and this week, I’ve been filling out franchise applications and information sheets — just trying to gather a lot of information — some of them are becoming quite interesting to me — all of them will, of course, be quite risky, but I’m getting the bug to just try something, and see if outstanding execution can make the difference that I think it can
– On Thursday 2/9, had lunch with another ex-co-worker, who is now out doing his own thing — he’s one of the nicest people that I don’t know very well (strange thing to say, but it’s true). He’s out working as a financial advisor/stock broker with Merrill Lynch — if you need some financial assistance, let me know, and I’ll put you in touch with him — I couldn’t recommend someone more highly from an integrity perspective.
– On Thursday 2/10, I had lunch with an old co-worker (who still works at Amazon) — nice to hear that things haven’t changed, and also that my decision to leave still feels 100% right to me.
– On Friday 2/11, I pitched one of my ideas to a potential partner in crime — I think the person was pretty interested — I had laid out a fairly complete package, with financials, demographic info from the www.census.gov website (which I highly recommend to would be entrepreneurs), articles, and more. We’ll see if his enthusiasm lasts the weekend, when he sees that this will be a very scary endeavour!
– On Saturday 2/12, we drove to Federal Way, WA to see Karen’s cousin (Lynn) and her husband (Ed) and four of their five children. Two of them (Connor and Luke) were playing in an age 13 & under soccer game… they’re amazingly good, and won the game… they now have two more games until their state champs, I think! Afterward, we all went to Red Robin for a particularly unhealthy meal of Burgers and Fries – as Homer would say “mmmmm….” Afterward, Karen and I hit the suburban Target — wow, what an amazing store — everything comes in larger sizes… toilet paper packages, soap, and, oh yes, people 🙂
– Sunday 2/13 was pretty much of a work day — doing some self-study, research, etc.