Welcome to My Brain

It’s a strange thing to learn how to be an employee again after owning a business.

So many self-help books that teach you how to start a business, build a business, grow your business and none of them ever cover “what if” you have to go back.

Probably because it’s not good business. You read the whole book and the last chapter is “And if this doesn’t work…” It wouldn’t be a best-seller.

I signed away my share of a business I built over 11 years because I felt I had to. Revenue was shrinking. The recession of 2024-2025 that the news isn’t covering but certainly exists ate away at my business like fish in The Old Man and the Sea. In different times, I could’ve weathered it. But with two small children and a mortgage I didn’t want to wait and find out.

There’s no blame here. It happened as it happened and I made the choice.

Now I’m learning how to work for someone else again. My brain is so used to juggling multiple departments let alone tasks, looking at everything from a 30,000 foot view. I don’t need to do that anymore. I actually got anxiety yesterday because on my first day I didn’t have a grasp of how everything worked. I had a 2 inch view.

I had to remind myself to relax.

But later, something incredible happened. At 5pm, I walked out the door of the office and felt euphoric. I was done for the day. Done. I didn’t have to think about work or what was happening the next day or that I had to hurry home and find something to eat before the next call that evening.

Done.

It was something I hadn’t felt in 11 years. When you own your own business, you’re always “on.” A customer could need something at any time. If business is down, you got to grind late at night and early in the morning. Leads. Marketing. Dig, dig, dig.

But it was 5:01pm and the air felt great and breeze was a divine sensation on my skin. Work was finite again. The evening was my own.

It’s amazing the strangest, most redundant things we take for granted. At 5:01pm yesterday I realized how much I had been giving up to own a business. There was no ‘off’ button.

My work life is much smaller now. I put my time in. Learn some things. Do my part.

I look forward to the free time now. And I look forward to what new ideas grow from this fertile soil.

September 23, 2025