Speechwriter

Excerpt from a keynote I wrote for the founder of a US executive search firm, delivered to an audience of business leaders (anonymized at client’s request).

Some of you may wonder why I would give up a corporate career. There I was, in ascendance, making as much money as I’ve ever made in my life. A future to, and beyond, retirement fully mapped – health and luck permitting. So why risk all that to start something at this mid-stage of my career? Especially when I have a wife, and kids to get through school, university and out into the world.

Here’s my answer: My entire background has been around building talent, culture and organization. When I looked at what we spent on talent acquisition at my former company, the amount of travel I logged annually, and the recycled candidates and half-heartedness shown by the search firms we contracted, I realized something: There’s room for a lot of improvement in this business model… I know I can deliver far better than what’s being delivered to me.

As that seed sprouted, and I plotted out my plan to improve the executive search process, I realized I had the most important ingredient of all: Access. I knew and was on great terms with hundreds of people in senior capacities at organizations worldwide. And I know they know what I know. Which is, they’re dissatisfied with the status quo’s inefficiencies in both costs and results. My gut told me they’d respond well to my fresh take.

And then a thing, a push, happened. I was taking my son to school one day, and my boss rang me to discuss something. As I hung up, my son asked, “Was that your boss calling?” There was something in how he asked that question that bit me… in a tender place. I don’t know if it was the timing, or the way he asked it. But it forced a collection, a collation, of thoughts. I began wondering, “How does he view me? I know he’s proud of what I do. I know he’s happy. He has a great life and a fine roof over his head. He gets amazing vacations.”

Had my son just become my conscience? I sat on it for a while, not committing, but involuntarily asking a question of myself: Are you ready, willing and able to take a risk?

I kept on asking it until I was ready.

I also had the previous best decision I’d ever made backing me: My wife. She’s a practicing obstetrician, and no stranger to risk. Delivering babies from mothers often in precarious health requires experience, and the guts to make educated guesses on what to do next when it all goes wrong. When I told her what I was mulling, I put it to her like this: Give me two years to make a go of it. I will keep you and the kids living at the same standard to which you’ve become accustomed until that time. If it tanks, I go back to the corporate world and pick up where I left off.

Without hesitation, she said “Go for it.” I went for it. We turned a profit in our first year. In that short time, I’d changed my life utterly for the better – and hell, I hadn’t even been miserable before. Suddenly, I had no more bosses – excluding of course my talent and my clients – but they’re the bosses I want. I have no more dealings with firms that recycle candidates. I choose who I want to work with. I get to help people, companies and nonprofits I believe in to reach their potential sooner.

Best of all, I go home Friday nights to have dinner with my wife, son and daughter.

Professionally speaking… The feeling of accomplishment in running a small but influential operation is equalled by the rush of complete independence in doing so. The thrill of risking a good career to seize my dream is matched by the buzz of pleasing our clients and our executives. And the challenges inherent in each new day don’t compare to the fulfillment of finding great people we can help, and placing them in new roles where they can take flight.

So to all of you who are not entrepreneurs… yet… permit me to drop a pebble into your shoe. In the form of these questions: Do you see ways you could perform at higher levels, be a more agile and useful part of your industry? Are you seeing un-bridged gaps ignored by others, along with all the lost opportunities in that? Would the evolutions or revolutions you envision be best executed as an independent force?

And the big one: Would you dare depart a corporate gig that’s supporting your family to start something with no guarantees of success, but that meets a call that your heart and soul are demanding you answer?

If you say yes to at least a couple of these, I recommend you keep asking questions. Because you may well be at an entrepreneurial threshold, and a whole new collection of adventures.

And trust me, you don’t want to miss them.