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The Unknown

This is the concept that gives a lot of people terror but also gives others excitement.

When I chose to work at a startup many years ago, it was because unknown excited me.  I wanted to be connected to game changing ideas and to people who like shaking things up and causing a ruckus.

When I chose to work at a law firm many years later, I still had a love for the unkown but I chose it for longer term reasons and because it was more was known and stable. I was just out of law school and business school, so even though it went against my nature of spontaneity and excitement, it also appealed to have structure and routine.

Both types of jobs can be good for the right person, but neither of them is for everyone. People on each side are very different.  The tolerance for risk, especially when you don’t know when the risk is coming.  Their ability to work through ambiguity and things they don’t know.  The ability to deal with pressure, especially when the consequences can’t be predicted.  In short, the unknowns.

Both jobs are hard, frustrating and tiring. But both can also be very satisfying and help you develop in profoundly different ways.  But one of them is filled with more unknowns than the other. And it only works when you’re ready to take the unknown head on.

So what about you? Are you ready?