An ending and a beginning

Below is the post I made on June 30th, my last day at Origami Risk.  I am “semi-retired” which translates to…I quit without having another job lined up.  No seriously…I am now on a journey to figure out what is next for me.  The blog title seemed perfect – this is a journey.  This is a story about a woman, yours truly, who jumped off the cliff, so to speak.  A woman willing to take the risk of walking away from a job, from the comfort of what she knows in order to hopefully discover what she is meant to be.  This is a learning process – not only for me learning how to journal, but also me learning how to write a blog.  So be patient and provide constructive suggestions if you so desire.

Looking forward to this journey!

Mary

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 In December 2011, I joined a very small start-up software company called Origami Risk as employee #15. Our plan was to be the best RMIS provider…not sure if we added “in the world” or kept our sights limited to the USA. I was warned that Origami couldn’t make payroll and joining them would be a big mistake. But I was (and truthfully still am) enamored with the concept of empowered colleagues partnering with clients to create amazing solutions using state-of-the-art software.

I am so grateful that I was given this opportunity. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have enjoyed training, managing, leading and mentoring so many colleagues. I have enjoyed meeting so many wonderful clients and creating some fun solutions.

I am going to take some time off to travel and decompress and discover what Mary 2.0 looks like. If you’d like to follow along, I will be sharing my thoughts here.

I’ll post here the advice that I passed along to my colleagues:

– think twice before you reply all

– life is short, have fun

– keep a praise notebook or folder 

– perception is reality

– make sure you know how others perceive you (that’s your brand)

– speak up

– raise your hand to help

– be able to articulate your impact (3M = managers measure metrics)