Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sometimes a bad mistake works out just fine

I posted this story first as a comment to a post on The99Percent.com:

14 years ago, I was getting restless in my current role and had started to look for new opportunities. The company I worked for was consolidating the division I worked in and there was a lot of uncertainty about the future. I was also feeling that I was ready to leave Boston, where I'd lived for more than 10 years since graduating from college.

Given these motivations, I rushed my job decision. When a former colleague called and said the company he worked for in Atlanta needed someone like me in a leadership position, I jumped. I didn't do my due diligence.

About two weeks after I started at the new place, and after I'd relocated, I realized that I had made a big mistake. I couldn't figure out the culture, the company didn't seem headed for success, and my job was not a lot of fun. What a disaster.

I ended up running into an executive at my former company, who had also moved down to Atlanta. We had dinner a few times, and at one point he said that the company he was working for would be a perfect fit for me. Nine months after I moved to Atlanta, I left the first company (refunding part of my relocation costs) and moved to this other one. I had a great run there and my old boss was right: it was a perfect fit.

Even happier than that, I made a lot of great friends at that company in Atlanta. One of those friends became my wife, and we have two wonderful kids together.

So the lesson for me is this: sometimes even a terrible decision can lead you on a path to an outcome that is far better than what a good decision would have resulted in.

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