Go Now: My COVID Moment and Pivot

COVID changed the world and me. This is my COVID moment and pivot.

The wind chilled my face on a brisk early Tuesday December morning in 2020, as I sat on a park bench with a hot Dunkin Donuts cup of coffee warming my hand. I had just turned 50. I stared across the way, thinking about the day’s deadlines and activities. Another day filled with colleagues, clients, candidates, emails, and Zooms. I began to pray and meditate and abruptly yet clearly heard the word Go. A sense of purpose settled upon me. A week later, on an even colder Tuesday, I returned to the same park bench at the same time with another Dunkin Donuts companion. One more grinding week before the holidays. I prayed again, and the word Now surfaced. I put the words together—Go Now. What did this mean? What was God calling me to do?

I thought back over my professional and entrepreneurial past. In the 1980s, most boys my age were thinking about girls and playing video games. I was not one of them. I sold things—newspapers and donuts. At age 12, I delivered the Oregon Journal each Portland afternoon. And at 14, while my friends slept in on Saturdays, I arrived at a nearby park around 8 a.m. with Walmart donuts bought the night before, hot chocolate mix, and coffee grinds and cups, ready to sell sugar and caffeine to parents while they cheered their kids kicking a soccer ball. After three hours, I came home with coins and dollars. A good day was $15, which could buy me several pints of Baskin Robbins coffee ice cream, the start of my lifetime love of coffee.

As I matured, my entrepreneurial appetite grew. In high school, refereeing soccer games put cash in my pocket while I decided when to take the whistle out to call a foul. Dealing with sometimes unruly parents and coaches yielded some tough love; my yellow and red cards quieted wayward mouths and kept players focused on the game. At Bowdoin College, I sold The New York Times and made a tidy sum, especially after I convinced faculty to require students to purchase the paper. I opened a bank account, charged for subscriptions, collected money, wrote paychecks, and paid vendors. I ran a business at age 20.

On the park bench 30 years later, I found myself restless, overworked, and ready for something else after working for successful recruiting firms. Go Now. But go where? I pondered this question for several months, and on May 16, 2021, I opened my own executive search firm. I celebrated with a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee as a sign-on bonus. Go Now meant seizing the moment, taking hold of my experiences as a boy and young man, and jumping into the abyss. Go Now meant leaving a well-established, successful, and stable business and charging forward. Go Now meant freedom and autonomy and risk. Most importantly, Go Now also meant doing something new and different. It meant following my calling as an entrepreneur, and it meant going toward something, not leaving something behind. My COVID moment and pivot had arrived.

Where should you go now? What is your personal or professional pivot? What skills and passions can you draw upon to propel you toward your next move? Perhaps you, too, can discover meaning and clarity over a cup of coffee at your local park.