Throughout my entire career, I’ve chosen the corporate path. Armed with a Wharton MBA, it has been quote-unquote, the safe path for me. Honestly, the “safe” path to a guaranteed six-figure salary, which helps me pay bills and gives me extra to spare.
However, as I’ve written countless times before, life isn’t about the money, and having realized that I am lucky that I am alive and not dead like 40-60% of people infected by sepsis (which happened to me about a year and a half ago), I now truly appreciate that it is TIME that is our greatest asset.
So, that being said, this week, a headhunter informed me of a position to run a global beauty brand and report into the President and CEO of a several hundred-million dollar company. He knew I had started consulting, but based on my career experience and successful results, he wanted to send me anyway.
So, off I went, to interview first with the head of HR, then with the President and then with the CEO, all of them knowing full well that I’ve started my consulting business. And although it is just in its infancy and somewhat fledgling, it is MY OWN strategy practice, and as I said last week, I love it.
I had a very good conversation with both the President and CEO and maybe, once upon a time, it would have been my dream next step. But I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do at this time in my life. I don’t want to travel to Asia or other international locales multiple times a year. I don’t even really want to travel domestically unless it is for my own personal reasons. And I don’t want to be stuck in an office for 10+ hours/day when I can, if I so feel like it, go to the beach at 2pm.
So, I turned the lucrative offer down.
Can you believe that? I can’t. Am I crazy??!
Yet, I did. Like I told the CEO, if I didn’t have any clients, maybe I’d be more inclined to return to the corporate workplace as the job was indeed a fantastic opportunity. But, I do have clients and I hope I can make this work for me, because frankly, they could have offered me several million dollars per year… I still want to own my time.
No Ugly Duckling 