I resigned in July.
The lockdown had an important impact on our personal and professional lives to my husband and me.
The COVID also hit my larger family very badly in Iran. My thought was with them every day. Praying I don’t know who, I don’t know what, that all was going to be ok. This made us think about our living conditions in Paris. On the paper, we have nothing to complain about: An awesome daughter, good health, great jobs, great friends, a nice flat… all in a beautiful city.
But in our hearts, we discovered what we never wanted to see: we never wanted to grow old in Paris far away from our common values.
After 6 weeks, being forced to face ourselves, we didn’t want anymore to run after time and spend all our money in a 2 bedroom flat and a nanny. We didn’t want anymore to see our daughter spending more time with a babysitter than with her relatives. We didn’t want anymore to wait for vacations to see our loved ones.
We want to live every day fully. We want to feel we are in the right place, at the right moment every single day. We don’t want anymore our jobs to control where and how we should live
A few months ago, my husband and I decided to ask for a fully remote position. On top of working only 4 DAYS a week (paid 5), my husband have the chance to be in a company that is very familiar with this setup for anyone since ever. The answer to his request was very fast. For me It was a bit more complex, the answer was “It could be possible, for now, the HRs are working on the new policies”. Not having a direct answer to my question, helped me to think about what I deeply want professionally.
As passionated persons, our jobs are a big part of our life. The boundaries between personal and professional life are sometimes a bit overlapping but we are ok with it because that’s what makes us happy too.
After the accomplishment of the BlaBlaHelp app during the lockdown, I thought, this is it. This is what I love: Starting from scratch, helping to build and grow a product. See it live and mentor awesome people.
I have a secret: I always wanted to work in an early-stage startup. But I was always afraid of the danger of something that is not yet stable. So I always thought it wasn’t the right timing and I always had a good reason for it: “I am too young”, “we are getting married”, “we are having a baby” or “you don’t resign at a company such as XXX for a startup”… etc. There was always a good excuse, to not face my desire. On top of that, I could see the pride in my parent’s eyes, when they were telling the world that their daughter was working at PayPal / TripAdvisor / BlaBlaCar. I was the cool kid.
A few weeks ago, I got an exciting proposition that fitted all I ever wanted: Great product with a positive impact, full remote position, great people, a slitty even better salary, a lot of ambitions, 6M$ raised in 2019… all of this from an early-stage startup. My first reaction was: “we are in the middle of a world crisis. It’s not reasonable.” My husband looked at me and said: What are you afraid about? Saying yes to what you always wished? It’s your fears that are limiting you.
What I learned, is that being afraid is normal. Is part of the process. If someone tells you once to not be afraid, it is like asking you to not blink. So let’s be afraid and do it with the heart anyway.
“What if I fall?” Oh but my darling, What if you fly?”
Ps: Bye Paris 💃🏼🙊🤙🏻
