In an article titled “My Personal Turning Point: Reflecting on a Decade as a Lean Coach” by Josh Howell, now president of LEI and posted January 14th, 2020, the author explains why he was smiling on a photo. It was not because of the prospective new job with LEI but because he was leaving his actual company.
This brought me to reflect on my own career and recall if I’d enjoyed the fact of leaving or the perspective of starting each time I changed my employer.
Out of six such experiences, I was more smiling to the prospective new things to discover than for what I was leaving behind four times. I was more happy to quit than thrilled by perspective twice. I was both excited by the new start and somewhat sad to leave my teams only once.
Everyone knows what he or she quits, but cannot totally sure what will be found in the new job/company. While the future to come might be partly fantasised, the past one is leaving is real.
By a strange coincidence, I’ve found Josh Howell’s article one year after writing my last (to date) resignation letter the very day of my birthday. And I remember pretty well why I was smiling then! I still am, one year later.
More about smiling author Chris HOHMANN
Chris HOHMANN 