"Welcome to the Wild"

Reflections on two years out of corporate life. The Wild is a big and exciting and overwhelming place, and it’s where there’s a whole lot of living going on.

“Welcome to the wild.” I love saying this to friends who have left—or been made to leave—the perceived safety of corporate employment. The Wild is quite the place and I really do celebrate everyone spending at least some time there. It’s where you get to see more of who you are, test your courage and creativity, and hopefully meet and slay some of your monsters.  This is only possible because no one else can give you the plan for your chapter in the wild—you have to write it. 

There is no syllabus or formula. Sure, there are lots of resources and templates and guides for some of the things you want to do, and there will be general principles for happy living you’ll want to implement. But no one has ever or will ever walk your exact path with your personality and ideas and fears and hopes and connections and experiences. The Wild is a big and exciting and overwhelming place, and it’s where there’s a whole lot of living going on.

On the first anniversary of leaving corporate, I wrote a series on LinkedIn I called my “Corporate Exit Diaries.” Six months later, I consolidated those posts into this single post here on More to Your Life.

I stand by my initial reflections, but it’s wild (no pun intented) how much my perspective has expanded and matured in the past five additional months. Here’s a fresh look at “life in the wild”  

Table of Contents:
1. Why did I leave?
2. What have I learned and what has been awesome?
3. Do I have any regrets/what do I miss?
4. Would I go back to corporate? 
5. Recommendations for you.

Why did I leave?

• I was bored, unstimulated, and felt stuck even though I was doing all the “right” things to be fulfilled.

• I wanted growth over comfort, to see more of the world, and to test my mettle.

• I wanted to see what I could do with my financial coaching business by going all in on it. It’s expanding into so much more, but that business was the thing that I left for.

• Under new leadership, it felt like I was regressing rather than progressing in my career. 

• More than anything, though, I had a deep-down knowing that it wasn’t good for my soul to stay any longer. 

What have I learned and what has been awesome?

• The point of life is not to do nothing, or really to have permanent time and location independence. Some FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) people won’t like this very much.

• Passive income is really attractive, and is a worthwhile part of your income plans, but we do ourselves a big disservice when we try to rush it. 

• Well-managed money can stretch farther than you think.

• People are fickle about what they’re impressed by, so don’t try. It’s way better to focus on doing something that makes money, helps people, and that you like, than something that will impress others.

• You can make friends anywhere and the most interesting people are usually off the beaten path, not flashy, or broadcasting their status.

• We actually need very little in the way of material comforts and even essentials to be happy. This is good news, considering that all of us leave every stitch of what we own here when we die, and there could be chapters of life where we have to or choose to walk away from it all. Knowing that I can go without a lot of what felt like necessities before is a pretty empowering realization. 

• Being an entrepreneur is lonely. Add to that, travel can be lonely. I do a pretty great job of connecting with family and friends, and making new friends along the way, but it’s not as constantly exhilarating as movies might portray.

• There’s a solution for basically everything and a lot of what you fear never actually happens.