My last official day at the bank was yesterday.

I am no longer employed.

It feels funny … sorting through all the thoughts and feelings.

It’s a weird feeling … balanced between excitement and uncertainty.

It’s exciting … to blaze a new trail … to discover new and exciting things.

Then there’s the uncertainty … filled with all those “what if’s”.

What if … I stayed with the bank?

What if … I made a mistake?

What if … my new business fails?

What if … what I’m doing doesn’t work out?

What if … I fail?

What if? … What if? … What if?

It’s going to take some time … for me to sort through this … to transition to my new role as entrepreneur.

I need to work through the established patterns and habits … and build new ones … leveraging what works … and removing or changing the ones that don’t.

I need create a new set of routines that will allow me to function within this new world.

Instead of … get up … go to work … deal with stuff … go home … spend time with family … go bed.

I need to create a new set of routines involving:

• Writing Book (and Blog)
• Serving Clients
• Developing Website
• Reading and Learning
• Networking
• Exercising / Playing Golf
• Spending time with Family (even more)

Once these new routines are up and running … once I get past the internal resistance … and get off my but … these new patterns and habits will take me to the next level … and I will wonder why I didn’t do this sooner.

Seth Godin captures the essence of moving from the ordinary to the extraordinary in a recent blog entry.

Make sure you check out Seth Godin’s Blog.

I’ve moved past the edge … past the normal boundaries … and perceived safety … that I call my current reality.

I’ve moved beyond the secure foundation of my previous life and stepped into the unknown.

What I know … on one side of the edge … is solid … has substance.

Why? … because it has been experienced.

On the other side … is the unknown … without definition … without substance.

Why? … because it has not been experienced.

What is experience? … it is a pattern … a path … that we have created … to travel from point a to b.

Once a pattern is created … and the path can be traversed … we feel safe and secure … and bring it within the edge … we could call this a map … of our experience.

These patterns … our experiences … makes up the space … that’s within the edges … that makes up the map … of what we call our life.

When we move beyond our edges … we are creating new patterns … new experiences … expanding the edge that we call our reality … exploring new areas of our map.

To expand our edge … we must make a leap … leaving one side of the edge … what we know … and begin the freefall … of not knowing.

What lies on the other side of our edges?

Freedom … from our existing patterns of mediocrity.

Freedom … from the walls we have built up around ourselves.

Freedom … to choose the direction we want to take our lives.

Welcome to my freefall to freedom.

Picked up a new toy today.

The Nikon D50 SLR is an amazing camera.

It came highly recommended from a number of people and once I tried it I fell in love.

The ease of use … the quality of the pictures.

It’s overkill for use on just web shots … but if you want to capture quality pictures … this is a great camera.

You can actually see the fuzz on my daughters head!

Doesn’t show up well in these thumbnails … You’ll have to take my word for it.

I will be using it to capture cool shots along my journey.

As I clean out my desk … fond memories return.

As I walk through the office … I remember the good times.

I know I have made the right choice … but the thing I will miss the most is the relationships … the connections … that I have built up over the 18 odd years working at The Bank.

This is the hardest thing about moving on … saying goodbye.

I would like to say goodbye to my team … for putting up with me as I continued to change, adapt and improve my leadership style.

I would like to say goodbye to my friends, peers and co-workers … for making my stay here so enjoyable.

I would like to say goodbye to my many bosses over the years … for indulging me as I’ve done my best to contribute to the organization.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with many amazing people … I would like to personally thank each and every one of you … for making a positive impact on me … and I hope I was able to make a positive impact on you.

I plan on keeping in touch with as many of you as I can.

If I don’t get a chance to say it in person … as I make the rounds through the office this week:

I wish you well on your journey.

I’m sure our paths will cross again in the future.

I’ve finally received the details of the package.

So … this week has been about understanding the financial aspects of taking the leap.

There’s lots of information to go through and many things to consider …

• Understand the various severance options
• Review details with a lawyer
• Tax implications from an accountant
• Continuation of benefits / insurance coverage
• Etc …

I’ve been planning these activities the past few weeks so basically it’s meeting with a lot of people and going through the details to understand my options.

I know that I will be taking the leap … it’s at the point of mitigating the risks.

The two main risks that I see are:

1. having enough of a cushion (cash) to live on while I build a sustainable business
2. ensuring my family is taken care of if something happens (insurance / benefits)

I know that I will succeed with the business … It’s just that I want to have enough detailed information so that I can make the proper decisions now … that will carry me forward.

What’s the worse thing that can happen?

As long as I make sure that we have proper insurance coverage … in case something tragic happens … the worse thing that can happen is … the business doesn’t make any money … in 12 months I dust off my resume … and get another job as an IT manager.

If I make the right call now … I might be able to stretch out the cushion an additional 2 or 3 months.

If I make the wrong call … I may only have about 10 months (this could even be less as I continue to create even more ‘worse case’ scenarios).

Perhaps I’m getting to caught up in the details … I always feel more comfortable having all the information … all the possible scenarios figured out … before making a decision.

I know as an Entrepreneur I will need to get comfortable with making decisions without having all the information … but I know my success will be determined by how much prep I do in the beginning … so that I can start on the right foot.

This weekend I’m going to be running the numbers through the various scenarios.

This will satisfy my need for information / planning ahead / reduce risk and banish the worse case scenarios from my mind.

I will then be able to focus my undivided attention to building the business.

Is it possible to be too intense … too focused?

Two weeks ago I talked about the importance of confidence … being congruent.

This was about maintaining my confidence when dealing with others … maintaining my congruence … not letting the negativity … doubt … from others to bring me down.

What I realized last night is that I have gotten two intense.

I’ve been too focused … too serious.

It’s like I built this wall … to keep out the negativity … preventing me from feeling anxiety.

Unfortunately … this wall also started to keep out the fun … I became too serious for my own good.

I realized … actually someone pointed it out (thanks Linda) … that I seemed really intense.

It was then that I understood that for me … congruence is about focus … which has a certain intensity … that allows me to be at the top of my game.

But what I also realized … is that there is a greater level of congruence available to me … pushing the edge of my current congruence … all by adding one simple element.

What is this missing element?

Playfulness … yes playfulness.

By adding a simple dash of playfulness … everything lightens up … and you can bring yourself up to that next level.

It’s amazing how … just by being a focused fool … that the whole world opens up to you.

And what an amazing element to bring along … when you push past that edge … when you make that leap … and begin that freefall to freedom.

This week I told my boss and my team that I did not apply for any of the new internal positions … that I will be taking the package … that I will be leaving.

It caused quite of spin.

It’s interesting to watch how people react to the changes going on around them.

Most people were quite excited for me … way to go!

Others were worried about me … had I thought everything through?

Some were more focused on how this affects them.

I find it fascinating to watch the group dynamics … the ebb and flow … the emotional energy … that moves around a group of people.

There is so must power within this energy.

It’s too bad that most people don’t even see this energy

They don’t even realize that they are caught up in it.

It’s this energy that good leaders will harness.

They see how their actions impact this energy … they know how to mold it … to shape it … to bring the best out of people.

I wish more people would just notice it … that would be a good first step.

These things never happen at an ideal time.

You see … we (my wonderful wife and I) have just give birth (mostly my wife) to our beautiful second daughter (we just celebrated her 3 month on this planet last week).

My wife left here day job over 6 years ago to stay home with our first daughter (also very beautiful) who will be turning 8 in April.

So here we are … my wife and I and our two kids … with me wanting to leave a safe and secure corporate job (an 18 year career) … to chase my dream and follow my passion.

If I was on my own … if I was the only one impacted … I would have made the leap years ago … but when you have responsibilities … when other people are relying on you … it’s not that easy.

I told myself that it was more safe and secure to stay within my existing job.

However … is it really more safe and secure?

What I’ve come to realize is that … when you work for a corporation … it is no more safe and secure then working on your own.

You see … the concept of a safe and secure job … is an illusion.

I’ve seen too many lay off’s … too many job eliminations … to continue believing in the fantasy.

Now … don’t get me wrong … you can make a nice living working for a corporation … I did it for 18 years.

To survive in a corporation you need to understand one key thing … don’t count on having your current job forever.

You see … at any moment … the political landscape may change.

Even if you have a great relationship with your current boss … or your boss’s boss … it doesn’t matter.

Someone three, four or five levels up (in really large corporations) may decide that your division will be sold off … or … merged with another division … or … spun off as a separate company … or … outsourced … or … I hope you get the point.

I’ve also come to realize that these things never happen at an ideal time … and if you wait for the ideal time to follow your dream … you will be waiting a really long time.

That’s because … there is no such thing as the ideal time.

Or … (I like this one better) … the ideal time is now.

The only reason that I’m able to do this … is that I started down this path over 4 years ago … when I felt safe and secure.

So I encourage you to do that same thing now … when it’s safe … begin developing your plan … start building the relationships … learning the skills you will need … so that you will be prepared when it happens to you.

And trust me … if you are working for a corporation … at some point in your career … it will happen to you.

And it won’t be at the ideal time.

Over the past week I’ve had more advice (both solicited and unsolicited) then I can recall in recent history.

The piece of advice that is coming up most often is … you guessed it … sales (and marketing).

In a nut shell … the advice is … to make it on your own … you will need to learn how to sell.

At first I thought … groan … I hate sales.

But … as I thought more about it … it made sense … if I want people to purchase my services … if I want to make a living … build a thriving business … then I will need to learn how to sell.

So … this week … my goal has been to understand sales.

There are so many aspects to sales and marketing that I need to understand.

I’ve come up with more questions then answers … some of them are:

• What is my brand … my niche?
• Who is my Customer … who is my Client?
• What do they need? What do they value?
• How can my products and services help them?
• What are the benefits of my products and services?
• How can I influence them to see the benefits of my services?
• What is my USP … unique selling proposition?
• Why pick me over all the other possible success coaches?
• How can I sell … what do I say … how do I act?

What I’ve realized is that … this is only the beginning … sales is not something that you study for a few weeks and … voila … you have the skill.

It’s something we have been doing since we were born … that we are doing today … and … will continue to do until the day we die.

Every interaction we have … every impression we make … every word we speak … affects the sales process.

Very quickly I’ve come to realize … based on an excellent conversation over lunch (thank you Alex) … is that the key to successful sales … it to build relationships … to build connections … to establish trust … and ultimately … to help people buy.

Now this is not some gimmick to persuade people to buy your product or purchase your services.

Because the goal is … to help people buy … without trying to sell your services.

Yes … you heard me … without trying to sell.

This is truly an outstanding concept … and I feel that I’m just touching the surface here … that once I truly embrace this … that this would really work.

It just seems to make sense … the best sales interactions that I’ve ever had … two things were present.

1. The sales guy (or gal) I was dealing with wasn’t trying to sell me anything
2. I felt that the sales gal (or guy) had my best interest in mind

I recall a time when a salesmen even told me that his product was not right for me.

Now is that powerful or what … instead of pushing the sale … and potentially damaging the future relationship … assuming that I would be dissatisfied … he told me that the product was not right for me.

I’m going to be applying this concept over the next few weeks … and I promise to report back how successful it is.