Last one

This is the last blog from the corporate escapologist.  To be honest even the name now makes me wince a little.  Like when I show my son Bertie a photo of him from a few years ago – he cringes at his immaturity.

And yet it’s only a year since I sat down in the same room in my house to start writing from the corporate escapologist.  A blog for people like me who had left corporate life and were embarking on a new entrepreneurial journey.

I know a bunch of what I wrote directly resonated with you – some ups but especially the downs – because you told me by email and over zoom: the identity crises, the worries about money, purpose and planet, the experiments, the admin, oh the admin.

Many of you feel like me that this year has been a quest, a journey of self-discovery, beginning with the cold, hard reality that we are on our own, no safety net, no guaranteed monthly income, no rulebook.

For me it was 16 years with all these things; for some of you it was much longer.  And there were moments when I stood on that veranda looking back to the warm glow of my previous life wishing I was back.

There were times I tried to find my way back: once contacting a former colleague about a job they had posted, several times applying for jobs a bit like my old one, and many times wishing that someone at bp would phone me asking me back.

Fortunately, the former colleagues ignored me and I didn’t even get a first-round interview with either job application (what does that say about me?) so I had no choice but to get on with things and “person up”.

For a long time I felt corporate escapologist defined me well.  I had escaped but I was fundamentally a corporate guy.  The skills I’d learned served me well in that life but were pretty hopeless elsewhere.  Even if I intellectualised that I had lots to offer, it was hard to really feel otherwise.

Faced with the stereotype of the entrepreneur (on a pedestal), I constantly came up short.

Of course I now see that was all hogwash and as the year rolled on I started to realise the entrepreneurial world isn’t any more black and white than its corporate equivalent.  And being an entrepreneur didn’t mean I had to act like Elon, Jeff or Jack – or my friends John and Illai.  I had to find my own way.

The second half of this year I have been doing just that. I end it feeling very different from how I started.  ‘Corporate’ no longer features in how I describe myself; escapologist also feels wrong - doesn’t that mean I need to go back?  It was a phase I needed to go through, maybe to preserve the connection, to retain some of that identity - a security blanket.

No more.  I’m no longer the corporate escapologist, defined by a reaction to the past. I’m a business owner – with some small wins under my belt: covering my costs (just), creating wealth for one employee and several freelancers, building intellectual property in a product I plan to commercialise – and I feel like all of this connects with something deeper, more purposeful, more enduring, more sustainable.  Something I’m excited about building and for which I feel incredible ownership.

I’ve seen a few people over Christmas – mostly socially distanced out of doors – and I’ve said the same thing “this feels like my life now” – it’s not an experiment, it’s not a reaction, it’s not something I’ll do until the redundancy money runs out.  It’s Plan A, B and C.

In each blog I’ve tried to write down a few ideas or tips that have worked for me to help you avoid the mistakes I’ve made or save the time I’ve wasted.  In this one I wanted to get a bit more meta and think about some big things I’ve learnt and want to keep doing, because they’ve helped me get here. And maybe after all (given my background?) – a year is pretty fast:

1. Find a coach – if you don’t have one get one.  Coaching is accelerated self-discovery and a place to practise safely.  It’s also somewhere you can say your stupid limiting beliefs out loud and hear them played back.  I can honestly say I would be six months behind if it wasn’t for my coach.

2. Write stuff down – in a book, on your phone, in a word document, it doesn’t matter where.  For three reasons – 1) you need a place to store and mature ideas 2) you need a place to track and observe your progress in breaking with unintelligent thinking 3) you need a place to help link up seemingly disparate things that pop up.

3. Plan and track what you do – I am a walking advert for Trello I know.  But when I look back over the year and see the hundreds of tickets I’ve shipped I realise how far I have come.  But also I see how I have kept focused and productive.  I’ve used my precious time pretty wisely and I’ve pushed into some uncomfortable areas because once it’s on the Trello board it has to get done.

4. Build a network, multiple networks – I had some friends who had built businesses, but I’ve gained probably more from connecting with many of you, some each week, to swap notes, share war stories, pick each other up when hope seems lost and help each other.  Another important network is the family and for me particularly my wife who was never dreadfully keen on me escaping corporate life with three children in private school and a hefty mortgage.  Megs is my biggest investor and backer – I’m learning to keep her on side, embrace her ideas and advice and (sometimes) realise when to just shut up.

5. Invest in understanding your purpose – I’ve said it before, but it’s been the big breakthrough for me.  I seemed incapable of finding it in bp, even though I suspect it was there all along.  Being able to choose what I do (something many of us only get to do once in our lives), I suspect liberated me from all constraints to realise what I’m meant to do.  Armed with this knowledge, I’ve found life simpler, obstacles more feasible and a deeper resilience when things go wrong.  It may take time, so it’s an investment.

So that’s it.  If I’m honest half of me thought I’d never get beyond three months writing this blog, the other half thought I might continue as the corporate escapologist for ever (appear on chatshows etc).  More than one of you has suggested a book, maybe one day.

Writing has given me focus, discipline, encouraged me to read and it’s helped me meet many of you, so I’m incredibly grateful, but for now we can put it to bed.

My plan is to start something new linked a bit more to Familiarize and learning about customers.  The flash of inspiration continues to elude me, but when it comes I hope there’ll be enough of the corporate escapologist in it that you’ll want to give it a read.

In the meantime, please do stay in touch – I’m excited by what our new lives will become.

Happy 2022.

adam@gofamiliarize.com