Beautiful: How to Know When to Let Go of an Opportunity

Opportunities are everywhere and if you took every one that came your way, you’d wear yourself out before you even got started. You’d also become highly distracted from the work you’re meant to do. Turning down an opportunity, especially when it’s a particularly good one, is a tough call. We second-guess our judgement. People give us their opinions and plant fears in our head with sayings like “well, if you don’t take this opportunity, someone else will.” I say that’s just fine. There is more than enough opportunity to go around for all of us. Your only job is to figure out which ones are right for you and then make the most of them.

When I first left my corporate job last summer, I was offered a freelance gig immediately by another division of my former employer. I knew the VP well (I actually adore her) and knew the work would be fun. However, it didn’t align with what I really wanted to do and why I left my employer in the first place. I wanted to focus my energies on consulting for nonprofits in the education and healthcare space, my teaching, and my writing. While this freelance gig would have paid well, it wasn’t what I wanted to do. So, I turned it down. The VP totally understood and left the door open for me if I ever changed my mind.

You should have heard the firestorm from some people in my life. “You should take it so that you have a big client on your books right away.” “Are you crazy? You can’t afford to turn down work when you’re first starting out.” “You can’t always do work you love.” Mind you, this was day 2 of starting my new company.

I didn’t listen to the criticism. I knew I did the right thing for me. I think what really flipped people out was that if I turned down work that wasn’t right for me, what did that say about their decisions to do work that wasn’t right for them?

At the beginning of January, I was offered a gig with a client I had worked with before. My first gig with them was not fun but it paid well and gave me an opportunity to learn a new skill set. It was a good experience but I had no desire to repeat it. When they came back to me and asked if I’d like to work on a new opportunity with them, I turned it down. Another firestorm ensued, this time directly from the client and the headhunter who had negotiated my first contract with them. I easily stood my ground because I was very clear about my own goals.

And that’s the trick. I’m a firm believer in you following your goals, not the goals of others. What do you want to learn? What kind of work do you want to do? What type of industry / company do you want to work with? What matters most to you? If this whole shindig is up tomorrow and it’s game over exactly where you are, will you feel good about the legacy you’ve crafted? Those are the only questions that matter. Let other people wage their own battle with their own choices. Your concern is how you spend your time, and that is work enough.