Why I almost quit my job at Union Pacific

We talked.  We debated.  We dreamed.  We cancelled our Africa trip and instead we put our condo on the market.  We sold our condo on October 17th at 2:45 and fifteen minutes later, I walked into my boss's office and told him that I was quitting.

But why?  Why sell the condo that we loved?  The one that we had saved for, and loved, and painted every square inch, and made into a home.  Why quit a great job that I was pretty good at?  Because I'm crazy.  And because my husband is crazy enough to believe in me.  And we are doing something I never thought I would have the guts to do.  We are starting a business.

The business is called Ova Ova, and will be launched very soon.  More to come later on the business, but here is a placeholder page we've put up while the site is under construction (www.ovaova.com).

Despite many wild ideas over the years, I have to admit that I've always taken the safe route.  In high school I dreamed of being a social worker, of making a real difference in people's lives, but I opted for corporate finance instead.  In college, I almost dropped out of school to travel around the country with one of my best friends.. no particular destination in mind, just the open road.  I nearly convinced my friend Kait to come with me, before I chickened out myself.  Then after graduating from college, I almost quit my first real job to move to London then Ireland... I even had the work Visas lined up and everything... but chickened out.  A year later, I planned to take a leave of absence to spend 4 months traveling around Europe... but then I cancelled the trip.  For as many crazy and awesome ideas I've had over the past 5 years, I've stuck to the straight and narrow.  And don't get me wrong, I'm very, very happy with the way everything has turned out.... but.  I've never taken a real risk in my entire life.

Until now.  We are starting a business.

And even though I'm now working part time at UP - my boss offered to let me stay on part-time - it is still one of the biggest risks I've ever taken.

And you know why I haven't chickened out yet?  Kevin.

When I told Kevin I had always wanted to start a business, he encouraged me.  He told me that I was the smartest girl he'd ever met and that I would succeed at anything I wanted to do.  Even before we had fully decided on a business, Kevin agreed that we should sell our condo to finance this business, and downsize to be able to afford for me to leave my job.  When I lost faith in myself, Kevin believed in me.  When I lost focus, Kevin encouraged me.  When I worked on our idea for hours on end, Kevin helped.  He brainstormed with me.  He proofread my emails.  He worked with me on the business.

I know I'm making him sound like some sort of super hero.  And don't get me wrong, we have our disagreements and our misunderstandings, but honestly I am very, very grateful for him.  Because the crazy thing is that even if this business fails, I will still be so glad that we tried.  Because I know what it feels like to have someone believe in me.  And really stand by me.  And to do work that I think is important and that I'm truly passionate about.

I recently came across a a Mart Twain quote, where he said, "Twenty years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream.  Discover."

This business is pretty much consuming every drop of free time and creativity we have, which is why I have been doing a terrible job with this blog.  But last night when Kevin and I were celebrating the end of 2011, we spent a little time scanning through some of my posts over this past year.  And even though I cringe at some of my pictures (I guess that means by photography skills have improved) and even though sometimes I wrote about stuff that was stupid, it was still nice to be able to look back at some of the highlights and even some of the mundane stuff that made up our year.  So my goal is not to let too much more time go by before updating the blog.  Call it a New Years resolution.  Thanks for reading.  Here's to hoping 2012 is a big year for us.