McKinsey was a terrific place for me to see businesses in action and understand how and why the people behind them did what they did. I learned a tremendous amount of economics, modeling (Excel unfortunately), crisp communication and sharp strategic thinking. The greater learning was seeing so many business cultures in action, understanding how people felt they would be rewarded and how the company aligned their energies and passions with its purpose.
The decision to leave was a tough one, and was predicated on being in an office where I was asked to follow a different train of work than my passions pushed me to perform. So then there was the question of what was next. Leaving McKinsey seemed frightening when it took up all my time and it was all I had known for a good portion of my business experience. I could sense that corporate life wasn’t for me, but I didn’t know what else was out there.
I did join a small startup at inception, but both of us quickly realized that there wasn’t a fit– I didn’t agree with where the business model shifted and the culture wasn’t one in which I was free to perform. There’s a stronger need for culture and passion to be aligned with the founding executives of a startup–if everyone’s not pulling in the same direction then its nigh impossible for that startup to get anywhere. Therefore, I shifted into forming the company whose idea had driven me into the entrepreneurial space–bringing retail consumerism into the paternalistic and socialistic world of healthcare.
As I’ve looked for different ways to bootstrap my venture, I’ve come into the odd world of the free agent, described well in Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself. This is the world of independent consulting, where I’ve been engaged in a mix of finding some clients on my own and working with small firms that have hired me to help them in specific client work. The model is very different–rather than living at the client site 4 days a week, much of the work I do can be done on with hours that match my capacity and from the comfort of a home office. I enjoy it more, as projects tend to be more tactical due to rates being well below those I billed for– allowing me to roll up my sleeves and get engaged on really understanding the issues and their dynamics and pulling together real and customized solutions. I do miss the dialogue with super-intelligent individuals and the decks of pre-packaged research that allowed me to get up to speed super quickly.
. This is the world of independent consulting, where I’ve been engaged in a mix of finding some clients on my own and working with small firms that have hired me to help them in specific client work. The model is very different–rather than living at the client site 4 days a week, much of the work I do can be done on with hours that match my capacity and from the comfort of a home office. I enjoy it more, as projects tend to be more tactical due to rates being well below those I billed for– allowing me to roll up my sleeves and get engaged on really understanding the issues and their dynamics and pulling together real and customized solutions. I do miss the dialogue with super-intelligent individuals and the decks of pre-packaged research that allowed me to get up to speed super quickly.At the end of the day, though, there is nothing quite as fulfilling as enjoying what you do. My projects are my own, my time is my own, and I get to spend significantly more time in the presence of my new wife due to less travel. I’m working more hours as I’m consulting in addition to building a business from scratch–but I have a feeling that may be the case for a long time, as I’ve blended my work with my social entrepreneurial tendencies and my natural curiosity with new business models.
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