Decision Made, but ...

For those of you still intereted in my transition story, please let me continue.

I showed up at the trading company on that Wednesday with a positive attitude, but I also was ready to be honest with myself. I wanted answers to the questions about whether I could work in that environment all day long and if I honestly had a chance to be successful.

I was introduded to a guy name David and right off the bat, I had a great feeling. David is a "master trader" at the trading company. He has been with the company for 2 1/2 years and has experienced considerable success. He is now a teacher who accepts new people coming in and teaches them what he has learned. I was expecting someone successful like this to be high-strung and on edge and not really wanting to spend the time to talk to someone like me. What I got was the complete opposite. David is the epitome of "cool" and you would never know the guy had a stressful job at all. After talking, we discovered that we had many similarities, including age. I asked him all types of questions regarding stress, the ability to learn their trading systems, psychological mentality, the ability to succeed, and his enjoyment of the work. One thing he said stood out above all others. He said, "I truly believe with the right attitude and effort, anybody can be successful doing this. Give yourself time and you can do it!" He was extremely positive and extremely calm. I want to be like that! My visit with him truly sold me on going for it. David took a risk on being a trader as well when he had graduated from Business School (with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans), and he said it was the best risk he had ever taken. That was it ... I had to do it!

I spent Thanksgiving weekend confirming my feelings and sharing them with my wife and family. I sat down and crunched numbers for finances and seeing if I had enough savings to make it through the 6 to 9 month learning curve period. I weighed the options between going for it or staying with my current job for a little while longer. I spent A LOT of time figuring out whether this was going to be the right thing to do. And when Sunday evening came, I had made up my mind ... I was going for it.

First thing Monday morning I called the trading company and talked to the HR manager. I told her I wanted to be proactive about the situation and said I was 100% ready to accept a position if offered to me. She was a little blown away by that comment since I had shown hesitancy the last time she spoke with me. She told me that she needed to speak with David and the Finance Director again, but she would try to get back to me by the end of the day. I felt good about telling her where I stood, but now a waiting game ensued. Minutes and hours went by and no call. Finally, late on Monday, November 28th, I received the call and was offered a position. I accepted. I was emailed a copy of the employment agreement which I printed out, signed, and returned to the company the next day.

However, my work was just now beginning. More on this in the next post ....