I think one of the first steps that you have to make when you've decided that
you're no longer happy with your current job is to really get an understanding
of why that is before you jump in to try to figure out what to do next.
Hopefully you've joined my group, the Brilliant Forge Group. I've shared a
couple of different spreadsheets there. One is in Excel format and one is in
Numbers which is Apple spreadsheet software. But I put this together because
I think it helps you think through why you may not be happy with your current
job. And so basically what it does is it is just a quick little spreadsheet. It
has a couple of different sheets you can use. On the first sheet you capture a
list of all the things that you like about your current job, the things that
you dislike about your current job, and then all the things that you wish your
next job or the business that you start is going to have. Then on the second
sheet you take the top 10 from each of those. So I want you to capture the top
10 things you love about your job, like about your job, the top 10 things that
really bother you and you dislike about your job, and the top 10 things that are
really important for you to think about in your next job or if it's a business
that you're going to start. And then you capture in columns all the different
opportunities. So it may be a new job at the company you're at. So a new role at
the company you already are employed at. It may be a new role at an entirely
different company, or it may be starting your own business. And so I really want
you to use this as a way to capture all those different options that you have
and then rate each one of those factors, what you like, what you dislike, and what
you wish you had on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. So for
like, does that opportunity give you the best opportunity to have that factor, or
does this new business you're thinking about give you the best opportunity to
have that factor when you start that business? For dislike, is it the best
opportunity to avoid that issue? And then obviously for things that you wish you
had, again, is that going to be available in that new job, in that new business on
a scale of one to five. And then at the bottom, I've got it set up so that it
totals it up and takes it, normalizes it to a percentage score. So the dream job
or the dream business that gives you everything you would like, everything you
want, and none of the things that you dislike would be 100%. I just like to
do this. I like to do spreadsheets to quantify really important decisions
like this. And this is an important decision. So there's some placeholder
text in there, just overwrite it with your own text. But you know, this is a
little bit of the exercise that I went through when I was in my last corporate
gig, I guess about six years ago. And so, you know, as I thought through this, the
things that I liked, I really liked designing and solving problems. I like
designing software. I love mentoring people and helping people with their
careers. And I really enjoyed public speaking. And that was something that
kind of came later in the job. But I realized that was something that was
important to me. I wanted to keep doing that. In the things that I disliked, I
really disliked the politics. And that was happening at the executive level more
and more. So I wanted to make sure I either went to a company or started my
own business where I wouldn't have to have those politics and deal with that. I
disliked being in endless meetings all day long and not being a part of
creating anything, not designing anything anymore. And so I really didn't want to
keep having my day be filled with endless resource meetings, which is what was
happening. And then I disliked being away from my family so much. It was really
long hours. It was something I really couldn't control because you have to
put in the face time at a corporation. And so that was something that I
disliked. And then, you know, thinking about things that I wish I had, you know,
for example, I wish I'd had the opportunity to really understand how the
P&L worked. So the profit and loss model for the company. And that was something
I had talked with about my previous boss at the company is I really wanted to
understand how the P&L was being run. And so that became important to me. That's
something that I finally decided I could only get by running my own business. So I
had the opportunity. I actually did a few interviews with other companies and
people talked with me about a CPO role or even a CTO role or a product director,
whatever it might be. You know, should I go to a small startup? Should I go to
someplace like Google? You know, where should I go? And as I looked at all the
factors that were important to me, you know, being able to have freedom, more
time with my family, being able to do public speaking, being able to understand
how the whole business runs into end. It really became apparent to me that it was
time to start my own business. So go into the group. It's the Brilliant Forge
Group. There's so many ways for you to find it if you haven't signed up for it
yet. It's a free group that I have on Facebook. It is a private group, so I have
to accept you into the group. But the spreadsheets are available as files
there. You can download them totally free. It's a great way to think through your
current situation at your job. What do you like? What do you dislike? And what do
you wish you had? And really get the optics into that to understand what's
next for you. So I hope you find that useful. Thanks.
