“Taking the plunge” carries multiple connotations. For some people, it means getting married, others may take it literally and find themselves bungee jumping into a river, but for me, I have made the decision to resign from Fenwick and start my own business.
When people ask, “why?”, I sometimes find myself second-guessing my decision. Why am I leaving a job which has provided me with so much? I can’t fault the work, culture or location, so why am I risking so much to start a business that has the potential to fail?
I have always loved creating things from scratch. Lego was the bee’s knees! Then it was building dog kennels, train sets, tinkering with cars and even building my own deck with a bunch of mates. Now I find myself wanting to know anything and everything about technology. I want to know every technology-related acronym and what that technology does: CPU, RAM, ROM, SOC, GPU, WIFI, BLE, NFC, FTP, MB, LAN, WAN, NAT, NAS, PWM, TCP, HTTP, SMTP, VPN – I think you get the idea. I need something to fuel this passion of creation and knowledge, and what better way to do it than to start a business.
What makes a successful company? Having a close relationship with your clients; trusting your employees; giving them responsibility and independence; and not growing too rapidly with the risk of losing the company’s culture.
Fenwick has played a huge role in my decision. I would like to applaud Peter Fenwick for creating such a great company. Not only have I gained exposure to a plethora of different industries, I’ve learnt what makes a successful company – having a close relationship with your clients; trusting your employees; giving them responsibility and independence; and not growing too rapidly with the risk of losing the company’s culture. I only hope I can instil some of these values and characteristics into my own workplace.
I’m a big believer of the quote, “the only things you regret are the things you don’t do”. I want to create something amazing from the ground up. Even if I fail, I will have learnt from the experience with no regrets. If anyone else is thinking of ‘taking the plunge’, don’t let the fear of failure get in your way. Ask yourself, what do you think you will regret more?
