When to Jump - Mike Lewis

While browsing through my bookshelves, I came across “When to Jump” by Mike Lewis. which was published in 2018. I am sharing information from this book as it really resonates with my first-hand experience of leaving a comfortable job to setting up a company.

OVERVIEW

?It turns out the Mike Lewis is the cousin of Sheryl Sandberg, the previous COO of Facebook / Meta, and successful author of “Lean In, Women, Work and the Will to Lead”.? Sheryl Sandberg wrote a very touching foreword about their Jewish great grandparents who left Ukraine in the early 1900s for New York City.? Had they not decided to make the move and had lived through the Holocaust in Ukraine, their and their descendants’ futures would have been very different.

This book is about the desire of Mike Lewis to leave his very attractive job in a venture capital company to travel the world as a professional squash player. It describes how he made this dream come true and the complexity around knowing when exactly to jump.

THE JUMP CURVE

Before making his jump and on his journey, the author consulted many people who had made similar choices. He summarises many examples in his book. Through all these examples, he recognised patterns and created the “Jump Curve”, divided into 4 key phases.

Phase 1: Listen to the Little Voice

Phase 2: Make a Plan

Phase 3: Let yourself be Lucky

Phase 4: Don’t Look Back

Listen to the Inner Voice

Mike Lewis talks about his inner voice that was telling him to become a professional squash player. When you are sitting down at work, do you have an inner voice, telling you something… “if only you had the courage to do this, or you would be much happier if…”.

Often when we are in very comfortable, enviable situations, like Mike was, we do not dare to listen to our inner voice because it would put us in danger and would unsettle us. However, if we disregard it, it often comes back time and time again.? Why not take the time to track it, to note it down, when is it occurring, how often? Mike made the decision to speak to a client about his dream. By doing this and voicing the thought, it was the first step on his journey. Fortunately, he received wise advice, that helped him go through to the next steps.

I would advise that when you are ready to share your inner voice, to share it wide. It takes courage, and if you are unlucky with the first person you share it with, it will get knocked flat on the ground, and you with it. So, make a conscious decision, that regardless of the first reaction, you will carry on sharing. I was fortunate the person that I first spoke to, was a highly respected leader and manager at a company I was working for at the time. He had developed a coaching programme, and I effectively used his programme to coach myself into my new venture.

If you are not ready to speak to someone, write your ideas down, this is another way of voicing it, refine it as your personal jump statement. If you are not yet brave enough to speak to people about it, speak to other people who have made a big change, get as much information as you can, speak about your “friend / colleague” who is thinking of jumping, and get peoples’ advice on what they should do. The more you repeat it, the quicker it will become your new reality.

Make a Plan

The author lays out his three components of the planning process: financial planning, pre-jump practice, and safety-net sewing. He saved a portion of his income to be able to survive without his main position, he asked for advice about a realistic budget, identified some sponsors. He got better at sport and while still working, he chose to live like an athlete, training every day, avoiding alcohol and participating whenever he could in professional squash events. He invested in networking at work, speaking about his plans to his colleagues and creating ways of keeping in touch, thus securing the safety net. Mike took a few years to build the foundations to ensure that he was in the best place possible when he did come to jump.

My jump was much quicker. With the help of my coach, I did the financial calculations and realised that I was at least in a good position to move forward. During my October of discontent realising that I was trapped in what felt like a glass prison, I also applied for other jobs.

While working, I investigated all aspects of company set-up, what kind of company structure, finances, web sites, email addresses, accounting systems, marketing, etc. Then I got lucky, I was offered a scientific position in a pharmaceutical company. When I realised that I did not want to abandon my dream of setting up my company, I asked them if I could work as a freelancer part time. Their acceptance of this meant that I could launch my company, already from Day 1, get revenue, increase my pharmaceutical clinical trial knowledge, which was my future safety net, and in parallel, my spare time could be used to develop my company.

What I quickly noticed is that having worked in comfortable large corporations where people seldom leave by their own choice, I had a small network. This meant that I had to work hard to develop this network. Never neglect your network because this can be so important for any new venture.

Let Yourself get Lucky

Planning is wonderful, but really it can only get you so far. One of the key things that entrepreneurs are told to do is to make a business plan. However, for a starting business, if you look at it one month, 3 months, 6 months or even one year down the line, you’ll find that things have radically changed. Business plans are helpful to point you in the right direction, but critical if you must convince outside investors. Therefore, be careful about over-planning and find the right balance between planning and letting things happen.

You should follow the plan to the extent that you need to get further along the jumping curve. No matter how much you have prepared, you will always feel strong emotions and uncertainty when you jump.? This is why the author focuses on the next step, allowing yourself to get lucky. He warns about potential reactions prior to the jump, planning more to fully solve all problems, pushing back the start date, or deciding not to jump. By taking the leap of faith and having put in the preparatory work it will inevitably give you some luck. This is what he did and found amazing coincidences that helped him along his way to reach his goal.

I too was lucky, the company that I was doing freelance work for needed contractors, as did my former employee and I was well placed to support them. Having detailed in-depth knowledge of the field and the companies culture meant that I could find and place excellent candidates. This meant that I had to step down from my own freelancing position so that I could focus on the development of my company. The people that you meet upon the way mean that countless opportunities become available, before I knew it I was doing Good Clinical Practice Training at Geneva University, working on developing innovative products, joining international business missions to Wales and to China. What I lost in focus, I gained in breadth of experience and valuable contacts that I cherish to this day.

Throughout “When to Jump”, Mike Lewis provides short narrative texts produced by people that he met along his journey that had the courage to jump. This luck, found while exposing your vulnerability, seems common to all stories. Make sure that through your journey, you build up your own network with their respective stories, that will give you the courage and faith to progress your own.

Don’t look Back

Deciding to leave and move on is difficult as the author describes in his last day at work. When doubts linger, the first and foremost question to ask yourself what is the worst that can happen. Often, we find that the worst potential outcome is not even particularly bad. You can also define strategies to prevent the worst from happening.

When making difficult changes, there are a few things that I find particularly useful. The first is to write down all the reasons for making the jump and keeping this in an easily accessible place. Make a habit of looking at this regularly. Develop a mantra, something that you say to yourself that will help you succeed, that you can remind yourself of in the difficult moments. Surround yourself with a supportive community that can understand and help you with the kind of challenges that you face.

After 1.5 years of being a professional squash player, the author decided to make his next jump which was to write this book. I think that the most important part of any jump, is that it implicitly offers new experiences, opportunities, and connections, that may themselves lead to subsequent jumps. Life is a journey and developing the skillset and ability to be able to make courageous choices instead of comfortable one, leads to a richer experience.

So what are you waiting for? What change would you like to make? Remember the important points from this book, listen to your voice, plan, let yourself get lucky, and don’t look back. Good luck and let me know how you get on.

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