“I just may tell my boss to go f*ck himself today.”

Turns out I didn’t have to. I was fired 3 hours later.

Every week, I talk to people going through career transitions.

They ask me about my journey.

This is the part I don’t talk about.

But I should. It’s the part that’s had the biggest impact on where I am today.

I was VP Customer Success and I was the golden child for a while.

Then things went south.

–> Big customers were leaving for the first time.
–> They were tired of us releasing features aimed at new customers, not them.
–> The new Sales leader was the golden child now, killing his targets by selling anything to anyone.
–> The team was burning out trying to onboard, support and manage bad-fit clients.
–> I was burning out trying to be the shit umbrella for my team.

I was drinking a bottle of pinot noir many nights to get to sleep.

So when I got escorted out by HR, you’d think I’d be relieved.

But it’s more complicated than that.

Week 1 – Stunned, angry. Word got out and I had tons of support from colleagues and peers. My schedule was full of coffee/beer meetings, and talk of all the opportunities I’d have to pick from.

Months 1-3 – Hopeful, with lingering bouts of anger. I had dozens of recruiters reaching out. 3 VP opportunities, 2 of which got to, “you’ll have an offer by Friday.” Then I was ghosted and told 3 weeks later they went with an internal candidate.

Months 4-8 – Fear and isolation. No more recruiters, no more coffee/beer meetings. The low hanging fruit had expired. Everyone went back to their normal lives.

Around 6 months, I tried to launch my consulting business for the first time.

It sputtered and stalled.

Month 9 – Desperation. I swallowed my pride and took a job as an individual contributor. I was taking support calls, training clients – things I used to have teams to do.

I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to talk about work.

And yes, looking back it was the best thing to ever happen to me.

But man, it sucked at the time.

It turns out I wasn’t ready the first time I tried to go on my own.

But after 2 years in that role, I tried again.

And business took off.

And I am so much better at what I do because of it.

So what’s the lesson?

Sorry, this isn’t one of those posts.

You tell me.

Everyone’s got a story. Mine is no more inspiring or tragic than anyone else’s.

It’s just life and it sucks sometimes.