11. An update

2018-02-20

Wow, I’m coming up on a year of not updating this. Hopefully I can get back on the blogging horse.

What have I been up to, you ask? Well, it’s been a busy year, but I guess not in the way I expected or wanted. Here’s a quick recap:

  • In early May, I moved home to be with my family in New Orleans. My mother, diagnosed with stage IV cancer a few years ago, wasn’t doing well, and I wanted to be home and support her as the only child.
  • I spent the summer and early fall caring for my mom. I won’t get into the details but there were lots of sleepless nights, entire weeks spent in the hospital, multiple doctor visits a day, etc. It sounds terrible, and it was, but it was also a gratifying experience to give back something of myself and spend a precious few months together. I gained an enormous appreciation for all those selfless caregivers out there.
  • My mother ended up passing away a few months after that. This is a lot to take at once, but there’s also a million little things to take care of after an event like that. It’s not fun.
  • In the last few months I’ve been helping my dad get back on his feet. I really felt for him, considering he’s not from the U.S. and has a limited support network in New Orleans, so I took it upon myself to make sure he was ready to move forward, even if slowly and by a little.

    • I’ll admit it was a pretty tough time for me and it’s still difficult for me to write this, especially in a medium that I started with (semi?)-professional intentions. That said, I learned a ridiculous amount about life, myself, etc., and it profoundly impacted how I think about my career and path. Happy to talk about it sometime.

    So where am I now? For multiple personal and family reasons I’ve decided to place business school on hold for the foreseeable future and take the plunge into the startup world by moving to San Francisco and looking for jobs. (If you know of any early stage companies, particularly in the b2b SaaS space, looking for an ex-consultant with startup ops and VC experience, please reach out!)

    Straying off the path has been slightly nerve-wracking at times, but more fun than expected. I’m excited for the next chapter and I’ll be sure to share how things go.

    More to come soon.

    Will