Knowing when to quit

I was at a Deep Purple concert recently and the first thing I thought to myself was, ”Man, they’re old.” It was like watching a show of the Retiree Club. Kind of sweet, but also kind of beyond the expiration date. It is awe-inspiring that someone at 75+ years old gets up on stage in front of 10,000 people, grabs the mic and entertains the crowd for 2 hours. However, it also could feel a little pressured and unnecessary. It’s like taking that dusty 30-year-old Mustang from the garage for a ride just to reminisce about the good old days, even though you secretly know it’s gonna give up on you 5 miles later.

The notion of knowing when to quit pertains to everything- work relations, personal relationships, career paths. As in the case of the rock idols, it seems much more glorious to retire whilst you’re on top, venerated and pumping with infectious energy. Of course it’s much easier said than done. What are you left with after quitting something you’ve been doing your whole life? Often, the answer is depression and a liquor cabinet. However, there are those cases in which this personal or professional pivot becomes one of the best decisions ever made.

I recently met these two ladies- in their late 50s, been friends since childhood and pretty much have shared their lives in one way or another. Both of them were pretty big figures in the corporate and the political ecosystem here in Bulgaria. Successful, married with kids and…tired and unhappy from what they were getting up to daily. We were having a conversation about life choices and how some of us spend their daily, simply on autopilot, counting the hours until it’s time to get home. A miserable and sad routine, which sadly is well-known to many. The two women shared with me that they were having this discussion between themselves for some time, realizing that they’d have around 10 more vital years until it’s time to retire and bring down the pace. They didn’t want to waste time, doing something soul-draining. They wanted to make a radical change, pouring their energy and creativity into something that uplifts and recharges them, giving them purpose and drive. Both of them love Italy and have shared many trips, gelatos and aperols there.The most intuitive thing was to bring a piece of what they loved to the city they were living in, so they started working on this little fresh pasta shop. Every detail inside the place is made with love and thought- from the mosaics on the wall, to the beautifully arranged showcase of jars and ingredients that make your mouth water.

At first, they couldn’t quit their full-time jobs because covid had just hit, so they were creating their place of pasta heaven in parallel to working long, exhausting days in the office. They weren’t some twenty somethings, so I had to ask how they had the energy and stamina to do both things. The answer was as surprising as it was intuitive- doing what they love gave them more energy than it took from them. As simple as that. Their advice was: Don’t wait 30 years, working a job you don’t like, until you venture out and start doing what feels right and good. I took it dearly and have been operating in this way for a while now. I realized that all the money in the world is not enough to keep you at a workplace that makes you unhappy. I realized that you always know the answer within, even when you think you don’t. I realized that the only change that’s scary is the one that remains unmade.

So, what do you want to change?