When I quit my job, I thought I'd have to start again from scratch...
But I
came to realise this wasn’t really true.
There's a few elements to this...
So let me clarify what I mean.
Quitting my job reminds me a bit of Kingpin…
A game I used to play at school.
Kingpin was basically tennis…
Without the nets…
With a rubber ball…
On a concrete
court…
Using your hand as a racket…
And up to 7 people playing at once, each in their own
“zone”.
So actually nothing like tennis.
But you get the idea.
And I loved it.
Creating angles which no-one was
expecting…
Doing trick shots through my legs…
And releasing my “bullet shot” which was almost
unreturnable.
What a way to spend a lunchtime.
Now, here’s the key point about Kingpin.
The game was a bit like a ladder.
If you made it to the top of the court you became “Kingpin”.
But if you lost a point, you’d go back to the bottom and start all over again…
Even if you were the “Kingpin” at the start of the
point.
And this was the parallel with quitting my job.
See, I knew when I quit I wanted to do something
different.
I wasn’t quitting banking to be a banker elsewhere.
And I thought I’d need to start again from
scratch.
A bit like losing a point in Kingpin and moving to the bottom of the court…
Or even starting from the
bottom on a completely new court.
It felt like all my previous efforts would be undone.
But I realised this wasn't
the full story.
Because the truth is…
Even if you quit your job…
You’ve still got knowledge and skills learnt over many years…
And these have huge value.
Just like moving from one Kingpin court to another.
Even though you start at the bottom…
You’re not really starting from scratch.
You’ve already got skills you can tap in to…
And these can accelerate your ascent.
In fact it goes further than this.
Because your skills might not be common in your new industry.
Like perfecting your “bullet shot” on court 1…
And taking it to court 2.
If your new court hasn’t seen this shot before…
And you use the shot wisely…
You’ll have an immediate advantage...
And this could also speed up your ascent.
And sure, there will be learnings too.
Like figuring out your new
opponents…
And the rhythm of the new court…
But that doesn’t take away from the experience you have.
And that experience can help you learn faster.
So now when I think about starting again…
Or rising from the bottom of the ladder…
I acknowledge my position.
But I also acknowledge the skills I have
already…
And try to use these to push me forward as quickly as possible.
To my mind this is much more useful than thinking “I’m starting from
scratch”.
Make sense?
I hope so.
Cause that's it for today.
Have a good weekend.
- Tom
p.s. Whenever you're ready, here are the ways you can connect with me