The following was written by my departed friend, Ron Fink, former owner of Sales Consultants of New Haven and of the Lewis Group, with a slight modification in the last paragraph to personalize it to me and my own story.
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Whenever we contemplate a change in our present career we usually hear two voices raging back and forth within our mind:
One says: “Is this somewhere you want to be and something you want to do for the rest of your life?” If the answer is “NO,” the other voice says: “But I don’t know. Perhaps this is not the right time.”
And so the dialogue goes – while in our innermost spirit we know that “waiting for the right time” is often just another name for procrastination.
The truth is that there will probably never be a right time. Conditions will always be difficult. Obstacles will always be in your way, which you must overcome. You will always leave some piece of you behind, a piece of work that is unfinished, perhaps something you feel you have earned. It will always be a challenge, if you decide to launch out into the deep and mysterious destiny to which you feel called, by the dreams of your soul.
Yet a time comes in each of our lives when we know that we simply must accept that challenge. When we must go forward and do what we really want to do with our life, no matter how hard the choice, no matter how hard the times, and no matter how difficult the struggle in our minds may be. We know that there is always a chance that we may not succeed at it, but we know that we will never feel that we have really lived our life, until we at least try.
And, in some ways, it is a journey in which we cannot fail. Even if we are not able to pull it off, in a way that the world calls “successful”, we know that we will at the very least be a better man or woman for having tried. There is something about adversity and challenge that tests and refines character, even as fire tempers steel. A challenge towards growth and change – willingly accepted – can often bring out the very best in us. If nothing else, it brings clarity of vision.
Is this the time? Only you can know. Only you can tell yourself, if that time has come for you to take the challenge to succeed, to stretch yourself and try. If the time has come for you, then one thing I can tell you is that it will involve a level of commitment, some hard thinking…and work, on your part. I can also tell you that a long time ago I was faced with a major fork in the road and a VERY BIG career decision – to leave the “security” of a sales management job with a major corporation, or to start my own business. I am very grateful now that I can truthfully say: “I am glad I did, rather than I wish I had”. I know far too many people who cannot say the same.