Independent Choice

On the Fourth Day of my Great Resignation my decision gave to me, unabashed choices.

Upon waking on the fourth day of my resignation, I recalled the memory of a conversation I had with my mentor, Richard Mosely, an investment banker from Princeton, New Jersey. This conversation took place in his office over 8 years ago; an office that once belonged to the author of JAWS, Peter Benchley. A powerful conversation, in a creative space.

At the time this chat took place, I was a single Mom of my amazing son Patrick, and running a small regional banking outfit in Princeton, NJ. There, I had twelve direct reports, with seventy people reporting under me. We were discussing my career in finance and the next logical steps my career might take, going forward. Big conversations, about small shifts that would yield big returns.

Mr. Mosely said to me, “You’re a single Mom not willing to accept the typical outcomes of being financially destitute, or working yourself to the bone for peanuts. Instead, you choose to rise in a man’s world and earn the lifestyle that suits you and your son. Unwilling, and rebelliously proving the cliché wrong.” He was correct. I made choices. Hard choices, that required grit, determination and perseverance in the face of many, many headwinds.

Our lives intersect with certain individuals in a specific season of our lives that hold importance, sometimes not yet revealed. We have choices. Every Single. Day.

For me, the word career is synonymous with the word freedom. Freedom to make choices that suit us.