When Opportunity Knocks, Do You Jump?
I have a friend that has a delima. He has a huge opportunity at the moment, and it has some risk associated with it (monetary risk, I suppose you could say).
Think back on your life and career. What were some of the times you took a leap of faith, and jumped ship? How did it go? Did you get the results you expected? Was it worth it?
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I see 4 outcomes:
a) Stay, and miss a great opportunity – you’ll kick yourself for some time
b) Stay, and the new company (or whatever) fails – you’re smug but no better off
c) Jump, and new company fails – Dust yoursself off, learn some lessons, gain confidence. They can’t eat you.
d) Jump, succeed – Hoorays!
The answer is easy.
when the universe smiles you should smile back. even if it was totally making fun of you.
I have a similar ‘delima’ (dilemma).
Either stick with a 1-year contract position I’m in or go take one fo the several permanent offers elsewhere.
What do I do? Only time will tell..
I am in that state now andalthough it hasn’t been smooth sailing, I do not regret jumping. Two years into it and I have freedom and financial STABILITY. While I’m no Donald Trump, I was never able to buy a home or tell my wife to quit her job and go back to school. There’s no looking back now.
Asking the question, alone, makes the answer clear. If the current situation were the right situation, there wouldn’t be a question of leaving.
Make the jump.
Back when i was doing IT, I had lost a job and had an offer in Illinios. The catch was that for my wife to graduate college she would have to drive 2hrs each way through the fall and winter in the midwest. It was a great salary and seemed like a sweet job. No real reason it just didn’t feel “right” so we passed it by.
As a result i decided to drop IT and get into design and my wife recieved a Fulbright grant and we moved to South Africa for a year. And now i have my own design firm. If we took the job in Illinios i would be living in the midwest doing IT right now (which i didn’t really ever want to do). Huge opportunities aren’t alway the best if they arent what you want. And if they are then jump on and hold on tight.
If it really is a huge opportunity with some risk, it seems that the right answer is clear. If it is just a good opportunity with lots of risk, then that’s a tough call.
One wild card could be other obligations. For instance, in my opinion one should be more conservative if family is relying on that person’s income.
I quit a good paying job that I was bored with for an interesting job that paid much less, but allowed me to learn new skills and enter a new industry.
Within a few months my pay matched the previous job and I spent 3 years in that industry, learning things about management, marketing and people that I’d never have learned at the previous job. Go for it, the risk is worth what you’ll learn.