An anniversary marked by a funny coincidence
Even I can’t believe it’s been one year since shrugging my corporate shackles at Hachette Filipacchi Media. Actually, I officially quit on March 5, but walked out of the building the next day. They offered to pay me thru the end of the week if I left right away. So on record, my official last day—the day my benefits were stopped—was March 10, 2006.
Oh and what a year it’s been! I’ve been able to develop fantastic new working relationships, working on projects ranging from basic design to editorial production to editorial to project management and more. Through it all I’m discovering more and more how to be in control of my life. Admittedly, learning how to harness that control often came from desperate failure, but that’s life.
Yesterday, a somewhat humorous coincidence proved how far I’ve come (or still need to come). I received a call from a former coworker at Hachette who needed my expertise on a project. But after a brief discussion, the plan was nixed. We had suspected that, because of the circumstances of my leaving, there may still be bad blood there and agreed that this was not gonna work.
But it’s not all bad. Part of the challenge of being a freelancer is accepting lost bids. Although the outcome of this particular bid was somewhat inevitable, it felt good knowing that so many folks there still respect my abilities enough to try and get me back. For that I’m grateful. Of course the money from another long-term contract would have made a lot more grateful.
All is not lost however. For the last month or so I’ve been working every day at Hearst Publishing as an editorial producer and loving every minute of it. My two main assignments have been with Esquire and CosmoGIRL! magazines. Soon I’ll be working on Country Living and House Beautiful. Talk about working either end of the editorial spectrum.
Aside from all that, this has been a time for me to reflect on this insane year of success, failure, stress and freedom. And as this anniversary came near, the one lesson I’ve learned is how much I love being a grunt. All those times that I was in ungodly painful corporate meetings and getting ulcers over the actions of those above and below me, I dreamed of a simpler life.
In other words, I wanted to have a job, do a job and then go home. And when I walked into the Hearst building for the first time … no, wait … more accurately when I walked out of the Hearst building for the first time, I realized I had arrived at that dream. And no, it was not the first gig of its kind for me, but it was somewhat symbolic being my first real long-term gig back in the magazine publishing world since leaving Hachette.
I’m the guy they dump the work on who gladly punches in at 10:00 and out at 6:00 knowing that the work is done and my hours are paid for. What I’m not is the guy that needs to decide who does what and how and when and where and why. That guy that never punches out because he has to be on call (with no extra pay). And for that, I’m very happy. Even in cases where a gig places me in a managerial role, I know that eventually I will move on to something new and being a general manager somewhere does not give me that option.
So, all in all I’m happy with my decision. Of course I’ll have to remember that the next time I go three months without a paycheck. It’s happened before and I’m sure it will happen again. I just have to remind myself of the mantra that has kept me sane this past year. Six simple words that I repeat to myself during times of financial desperation, when I find my eyes scouring the job sites …
“I Will Not Ever Go Back”
One year down … many more to go.
See Also:
I Quit My Job on Monday… (from March 2006)
