Fourteen Years
Fourteen years ago, amidst the worst of the Great Recession, I was laid off. After a dozen years split between two consulting firms, I wasn't sure what to do next. I knew that all the other local firms had already been paring back their staff and were not hiring. Where was I going to go?
After much deliberation, I realized I had this choice: try to find a position in the corporate world or try to find clients as an independent consultant. Both options were foreign to me, but I knew that I enjoyed and thrived in a consulting role, helping a broad range of clients on a variety of project types. So I took my first steps down that path, and fourteen years later I have never looked back.
It hasn't always been easy. After months of reaching out among the people I had collaborated with over the previous dozen years, I finally landed my first quick gig (thank you, Rich and Betsy). Shortly after that, I received a call from an old client which turned into two years collaborating on a large piece of medical capital equipment. ANGLE was off the ground.
With every subsequent project, I was continuing to build out my network. In its fourteen years, 100% of my work as ANGLE has come from within that network, whether I'm augmenting teams at product development firms or working directly for companies ranging from startups to large corporations. All projects started with someone I've worked with or for, or they precipitated from introductions from within the network.
Earlier this year, I was reminded of the uncertainty of those initial days after being laid off. A client that represented about 90% of my workload made the difficult decision to halt their development projects. I was left with nothing to do but reach out among the now-much-larger network of friends and collaborators. This time it took only a matter of weeks to fill up my bandwidth (actually overfill it, but that's the other side of the cyclical nature of consulting).
All this to say that I am exceedingly fortunate and appreciative to have such an amazing and supportive network of friends and colleagues. I love what I do. And I just felt like I should say thank you to everyone who helps to make it all possible.
“Thank you!”
