Normally, I would not have sent those emails. I cold-emailed 20 executives trying to set up an exploratory meeting so I could learn more about what they’re doing at their companies.
I’m not yet committed to starting at a particular date, or moving on from my job, so the most I can actually do is explore and do research, at this point. If I want to make this a business, I need to have some hard conversations with my current employer, or simply move on (which I also don’t want to do… at least not that soon.)
I had some (maybe valid) reasons why I should not have sent the emails out yet. But I decided to just do it, because the real reason I didn’t want to do it was because I was afraid. Afraid of looking stupid, or failing.
And why do I care about that? Why?
Now that the emails are sent, I don’t really care if they work or not. What was I so afraid of?
It just felt uncomfortable. Like I would look dumb. But I’m going to have to be comfortable looking dumb if I am going to do things for the first time.
The biggest barrier to starting something new is how comfortable it is being old and wizened in the current field you’re in.
If you ever want to switch careers, you will eventually have a first time doing something, and it will be uncomfortable, and you may have to look stupid in public to learn how to do it.
Regardless of results (and I’m not particularly optimistic about that at the moment) I am glad I kept my commitment and did the thing I was afraid of.
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