This week marks 6 years since my last official day in corporate. I remember the day well – I turned in my badge, walked to the water, looked out over the Hudson river and took a deep breath. It’s been a wild, fun and challenging ride – and I must say I’m a much better person for it.

That said, I feel it’s a good time to revisit why I left corporate, considering the amount of people looking to make the jump today, and also the many who made the jump and are thinking about going back. But it’s also a good time to chat about what I’ve learned since, and why I could consider going back to the cubicle, office and hallway world of bad free coffee and awkward “waiting for elevator” smirk/smiles.

Why I Left Corporate 

I always say I hated corporate – which isn’t exactly accurate. At the time, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what I disliked about it, but ultimately I had no drive or desire to do more than what was required.

I did good work – but stopped when the work was done. In an Office Space kind of way, I didn’t think I had any incentive to go beyond the minimum expected. Leadership respected me and saw more in me than I did myself, but the idea of creating work and driving something bigger than myself forward just never occurred to me.

It sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t know *how* to work in a corporate setting. Yes, I was professional, my work was pristine, and I did what was expected of me. But when we talk about purpose, passion, etc. – it wasn’t there, and that’s what brings me to what I’ve learned.

What I’ve Learned

First and foremost – I learned that my issues with corporate were my own doing. I had more control over my work product and satisfaction than I allowed myself. It was easier to point fingers at culture or bosses or lack of feedback for reasons as to why I wasn’t getting to where I wanted to go. All of those are red herrings – we ultimately control our own development and next steps.

Many entrepreneurs will tell you that the passion, drive and more that they were looking for doesn’t necessarily come from the product that they deliver – it comes from the creation of something and the risk and reward that comes from it. This entrepreneurial mindset and psychology will do wonders in a corporate environment – we ultimately want to create something that we can own and be proud of. That can be done inside a company or outside – where it is will be up to you.

Why I Could Go Back

I have a different perspective today, and recognizing that there is an entrepreneurial aspect to navigating a corporation is a bit of a game changer for my clients. From accountability to efficacy – there is a merging of personal capability with business goals and culture that needs to happen. And we, as individuals, have more control over that than many of us give ourselves credit for.

Especially today, with the discussion on culture, hybrid work and going back into the office – it’s the people who understand this bigger picture who are making significant strides in embracing it and making it their own. Yes, flexibility has its place, but ultimately there is a larger picture than ourselves, and one we need to explore and make an impact on.

More on the podcast – but those are my thoughts today. Hope it’s helpful – and I’m always here to chat!

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 welcome to bellwether episode 102. And I’m gonna talk about something very topical today. I’m gonna talk to you all about why I left corporate, uh, it’s top of mind for many, many people right now, whether it’s their thinking about the great resignation or I’m. So I hate my job more than anything. And the world is, you know, continually changing. We talk about that all the time work is making me come back to the office and I hate it. Do I actually leave now, do I take this time? Uh, a lot of people have moved, uh, out of corporate and are now looking to get back. They weren’t quite ready for the movie, even though they thought they were, and this week is a milestone for me because I’m recording this on a Wednesday. But this Friday of this week is my anniversary. Seven sixth year anniversary of the day I left corporate officially May 20th, 2016 was my last day within a corporate building with a badge with one of those little badge things.Um, so what I wanna talk about today, why I left, I’ve learned so much since you know, why as to why I left. I’ve learned so much about it just in my industry, what I do as a coach, working with people. And so I understand more of why I actually left corporate and what was going through my mind, even though I couldn’t articulate it at that time. I’ll talk to you a little bit about what I’ve learned since, and then I’ll, you know, I’ll tease it a little bit. Would I actually go back? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t cliff hanger to, to get you to stick around till the end, or you can just pass forward. It doesn’t matter. Um, whatever works, but that’s what I wanna talk about today because I know it’s top of mind, I’m gonna keep this probably under 15 minutes.We’re all busy. We don’t have time for this. So I’m gonna tell you why I left corporate what I was thinking, what I’ve learned and, and why I would, or wouldn’t go back. So why I left? I tell people quickly why, when they ask me why I left corporate, I automatically, my response is I hated corporate and that’s not fully true. Um, I hated my position within corporate and it’s mostly because I didn’t feel like I fit in, in corporate. And you know, this’ bleed into a little bit of what I’ve learned is what I realize now is that I didn’t fully know how to operate in the corporate environment. Now I was very good in the corporate environment. So Ty put me in front of any group. It wasn’t, it wasn’t about the manners or anything. It was about dictating what it was that I wanted to do, finding that desire to do work and all of that type of work.So I love the people. I love the people I worked with. Um, but I can never put my finger on what exactly it was. I disliked at the time becoming a coach, taught me more, uh, which I’ll talk about, but, um, I had no drive. I had no desire to do more than the bare minimum. Um, you know, I could do my work very, very well. I could do it in a very short amount of time and that was good enough. And I had no inkling or inclination or, or desire to really create work, do more and whatever it was more you tell me what to do, I’ll do it fine. Just leave me alone. And that’s it. And I, I think if I were still in corporate during the pandemic with people trying to call me back, I’d probably fight going back to the office because I could probably mail it in.I was mailing it in back then. I was making, you know, six figures, good money. Um, and I was good enough to do that. And I probably would’ve, well, I not probably, I definitely would’ve made a lot more money if I put in the effort and everything else, I fully understood more if I had some kind of mentor or anything, you know, I could blame others, but I also just didn’t really wanna pay attention at that point. So going back would be, would be very different. What I also, um, learned is that I’m very hostile to authority. Um, and I learned that in, in becoming a coach and, and, you know, we give assessments to people and if you’re gonna give assessments, you have to take them yourselves. And the person who gave you my assessments, like you really hate authority. And that was kind of, uh, a good learning, uh, thing for me.So, so everything I didn’t like about corporate, what I’ve learned actually came from me yet. I was always look looking externally at who I can blame whether it was my boss or somebody else or, or whatever. I always had a really good view from leadership leadership respected me, peers respected me. They knew my value. Um, they saw it more than I did. I remember the president in one business coming to me and said, you have to tell me what you want to do. If you wanna run any business within this company, I will get you to run that business. And I just looked at him and said, okay, whatever. And, and it wasn’t, you know, it sounds so ridiculous, but I didn’t know how to articulate what it was I wanted to do where I wanted to fit in. And I didn’t really understand the value of good partnerships within the office.It was more about, you know, whatever. Um, none of the work was particularly challenging, which is nice. Uh, but I think that’s probably part of my problem and why, you know, I didn’t look for anything that was necessarily difficult and I didn’t really take any risk and I didn’t do any of that stuff. So that’s, you know, when I think about why I left, it’s really comes down to didn’t care, uh, which is my own fault. Uh, didn’t want to do more than the bare minimum, which is my own fault, but I also, you know, it’s my own fault because I didn’t understand. And I didn’t look to understand on what working in corporate actually entails and working in corporate and creating work and doing all of these things. We’re never taught that we just, you show up to the office, the boss tells you what to do and that’s it.And when you learn as you evolve and what the good, what the go getters learn and what the really good p...