You're listening to that. That's Life podcast by Richard Butler. Where I talk about everything to do with life and how to make it better. Hey, happy monday. It's Richard Butler and of course I'm here with another short and sweet podcast because that's the way I like to do a podcast. 678 minutes. I'm not going to talk to you for hours and hold on a second. I've been too long on this introduction. 

Welcome guys. How's it going today? I want to talk to you about, well, taking risks, taking chances. You see on saturday, It was nine April and that marked one year to the day that I left my corporate job. Now let me put this into context. I had been working in one of the leading recruitment companies in the world for just over nine years. Just, but I should say just under 10 years and I've been thinking a long time about leaving, but I've never got the guts to actually do it. I mean I had told lots of people and if you're listening, you know who you are. But I had told lots of people I'm going to leave because I'm just not fulfilled anymore. I'm just not happy. But I just, it wasn't the right time or I was just afraid. 

And then, you know, I discussed it with my wife and she said if you're gonna do it, just do it. I mean we'll find a way and things will work out now. I want to tell you about how we found a way. But one year ago on saturday, it would have been a friday. Obviously I arrived to the office with a round box with basically everything that I had, that belonged to the company. You see, I've been working from home since Covid started actually just a little bit before Covid started and I hadn't been back to the office. And that brown box had everything that I had, it had an old laptop, a rickety mouse, I think there were some papers, some cables, and that was it. And I have a picture of that, that box. I kept a picture of it and I went into the office and I remember talking to my colleagues that I hadn't seen in so long and they couldn't believe it, they were like, you're joking. And I said, no, no, I'm leaving, like, today is my last time hunting everything in. And they were like, what? Because I guess, let's be honest, I was at an age where you leave a job in spain and it's going to be very tough to get another job. So of course, the first question was, where are you going? 

And when I said I'm going to set up my own business, they were like, you're joking, right? I was like, no, no, I'm going to set up my own business. So it was interesting because I've got to admit it, I was probably part of the furniture there. I mean, there were a number of people who worked there that had always been there and when they left it was like, oh my goodness, they have left, I mean because they were the foundations of the company. I mean managers that have been there for many years myself, I worked on the content management system and all of the online projects. They couldn't believe it. And I guess when I left I felt a little bit of sadness because I mean this had been the job that I had been in the longest and I was taking a risk because everybody had said to me going self employed in spain, there's so many taxes, it's so difficult. Um I mean what are you doing? It's like in a pandemic, um there's no jobs out there, people are going to be able to pay for your english coaching, what if it doesn't work out And I just thought, no, now is the right time, I was 48 at the time And I thought if I don't do it before I'm 50, I will never do it. And I thought, why stay in a job where you're not being fulfilled anymore? I mean it wasn't a bad job, it paid pretty well. I didn't, I had never had a boss in the office in the nine years that have been there. 

My first boss was in paris, my next two bosses, my next three bosses were in the UK and then my father boss was in paris, so I didn't have anybody breathing down my neck. So it wasn't that, but it's just, I felt I needed a new challenge. I needed to move on, I needed to do something different. And if I admit it, I mean we were in a good position because we didn't have a mortgage, we didn't have rent to pay, we didn't have any loans, so if everything went belly up, as we say, we still have somewhere to live and my wife had a very good job as well or has a very good job. So it was a very calculated risk that I took and I had been, I've been planning a couple of things before I left. I mean I had, I had been building up clients that I used to teach in the evenings and I knew where I wanted to go and how I want to do it. One of the values that I've always had is freedom. Freedom has always been really important to me and I think it's even more so than the money. I mean I don't have money because we live really well in spain. I mean we go out to eat maybe once a week and are more and we got to nice restaurants and the cost of living is quite good here as well and I wanted more of that and if I reflect back in the year, it's been, it's been really interesting because you know, um I got myself an office, I got myself lots of nice gadgets to help me do these podcasts and sound even better than I do in real life. You should hear how I sound in real life. No, no, I'd say it's, I'm joking. Um and I was able to make my own hours. 

I mean in the mornings now I get up and I may have a client at eight o'clock, maybe one at nine o'clock. And then I walked down to the office, have breakfast, have breakfast with my wife. Then I walked into the office, I might get to the office at half 10 or 11 And yeah, I work until 8:00, but I'm doing work that I love, I'm doing work that really interests me and I feel good about and of course I do get stressed because holidays, I mean here's the mind shift that I had. I used to know every single holiday, free day, bank holiday that was coming up for the next two or three months and people say, oh it's tomorrow, I'll do what I say. How do you not know? I mean, I knew them all and now I've forgotten about holidays. Oh, this week is uh easter week on friday is the day off. Oh yeah, of course it's good friday or monday easter monday is a day off. I mean it doesn't bother me anymore because I know I can take a day off whenever I want. But having said that taking a day off. can also stress me and why is that? Well, because I don't have the luxury of having paid holidays? I mean, I can take as much time off as I want, but I don't get paid. But don't worry, I'm working on that to see what I can do to actually do that. But the key here is that I'm doing what I want when I want and where I want. I mean technically I can, my wife says like, let's go over to the States for a couple of months. I can do that. Or I could just decide to go myself or I could go to Ireland for a couple of weeks. So the point here is that if you want to do something, do it now because life is for living. I mean, don't say I'll do it when I retired. Don't say I'll do it when I change jobs. Don't say I'll do it when the time is right because the time is now and who knows this time next year I may be crying into this microphone gone. Why did I leave that full time job? 

But I don't think I will be. And I do think I'm happier. And even some of my clients that I've had for quite a while has said that to me, I notice you're happier. I notice that you're enjoying yourself. You're smiling more. And I want to tell you that you can do it too. And if you want to get more out of life, why not connect with me on linkedin? Why not send me an email? Richard at Richard Butler dot Coach. Why not subscribe If you're listening to this on be cast dot f. M, why not just sign up? You should see a little sign up form from a mailing list because I want to help as many people as I can this year and beyond, to live a happier life and live a life of freedom. Now I see That were coming up to just over nine minutes and I don't want to keep you anymore. So I want to say to you have a wonderful day. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and I'll talk to you next week. Mhm If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure that you subscribe and check out my website. Richard Blanco dot coach. I'll see you next time.