Resilience is Recession-Proof

September 2009

At this point in my journey, I was stuck in a pool of self-doubt and uncertainty.  After meeting with a venerable entrepreneur to discuss my business, I was left to believe that I would need to raise $6 million to get my business off the ground, and if that was the cost to build the website I had in mind, the risk simply wasn’t worth my time or effort to go through with it.

On top of it all, I had just gotten word from a consulting firm in Chicago that they wanted to fly me out for an interview.  I decided it was best to take their offer.  If worst came to worst, I would get a free trip to Chicago, and I can’t complain about that.

While I doubted myself and my business plan at this point, I hadn’t completely given up.  At the time, I was reading The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.  The book didn’t exactly inspire me to build my own social networking website.  However, I thought if Mark Zuckerberg could do it, why can’t I?  Yes, I know that is a stretch, but I always like to dream big.

From the moment I headed to LaGuardia and began my trip to Chicago, I started to convince myself that I wanted this.  After all, if I was going to end up in Chicago, I wanted to at least be excited about it.  I also started thinking about the consulting lifestyle: travelling, hotel rooms, and more travelling.  So as I arrived in the airport, I thought about how much I loved travelling, trying to envision myself loving a career in consulting as best I could.

I thought about the time I would have to myself to read, think, and listen to music in airports and on planes.  I also thought about all of the interesting people I would meet along the way.  It seemed really exciting.  If I was going to be flying to China, Brazil, and India, I would probably meet some extremely interesting people.  In hindsight, I cannot believe that I actually convinced myself that I might actually enjoy travelling halfway across the world two or three times a month.

When I arrived in Chicago, I met up with my friend, Joey, who showed me around Lincoln Park and other parts of Chicago.  She began to tell me about the awesome Michigan bar that they have there where all Michigan alumni meet to watch the Wolverines on Saturdays.  Then we headed over to the beach.

I have to admit, Chicago is an awesome city.  I had only really been there in the winter, so I never really got to experience the benefit of living in, what I realized was, a pretty sweet beach town.  With the exception of college, I have always lived in New York, and I had never really thought about living anywhere else.

However, at this point, I really started to envision myself living in Chi-town, and the picture wasn’t bad at all.  It is such a cool city in the summer with amazing things to do.  Meanwhile, I had told myself that I was getting an offer.  I had studied case interviews the entire plane ride and in all my free time.  I told myself that there was no way I wouldn’t get an offer.

The next day, I went over to Navy Pier with my friend Mark.  We went on a speed boat tour, where I was able to see the magnificent Chicago skyline from lake Michigan.  I couldn’t believe how cool Chicago was, but it was even more shocking that this might be the city I would soon be calling home.

However, after the boat ride, Mark had to take care of some errands, which is when I realized I don’t really have that many friends in Chicago.  With an entire day to kill, I called just about everyone I knew in Chicago, but I couldn’t find one person to hang out with.  At that point, I figured I would see the rest of the city, so I rented a bike and rode around.  It was fun exercise, but after a half an hour, I started to get really lonely and depressed.

All of my friends and family live in New York, which meant I would pretty much have to make an entirely new group of friends.  I am a friendly guy, but that is a very daunting task.  Either way, I still wanted an offer, so I vowed to put my best foot forward the next day during the interview.

I got a good night sleep and woke up early the next day so I could eat a hearty breakfast and do a little more studying.   I headed over to the office, and prepared to woo this consulting firm.  It seemed as though these five back to back interviews I would be having were the final culmination of the entire trip and all of my hard work and preparation.  I was ready.

I went upstairs to their office, and the receptionist told me to take a seat.  Nothing kills that feeling of excitement like waiting 30 minutes for the interviewer to come out.  However, after what seemed like an eternity, the HR woman I had been in contact with finally appeared.  We out to lunch with another candidate, and I made sure to seem as amiable and intelligent as I possibly could.  I felt like I had knocked her dead at lunch, and then it was back to the office to face the five interviews I had been waiting for all week.

Unfortunately, when we arrived upstairs, the HR woman told me that there was a client emergency, and every consultant in the office was out of town.  There would be no five interviews.  I would just be sitting and chatting it up with the same HR woman I’d had two hour-long phone interviews with.  She told me more about the firm and the people who worked there, but after an hour, we both realized I wasn’t accomplishing anything more by being there.  My entire trip was essentially a waste.

I headed back to the airport frustrated and confused.  She told me, however, that they would fly me out once more in a week to actually go through with the interviews.  That was irritating, but if I were going to be a consultant, I’d be doing a lot more travelling than that, so I told myself it was fine.

When I got home, I emailed the HR woman to follow-up.  When I received no response a few days later, I sent another e-mail, and another.  Finally she got back to me.  She essentially said: you are going to be so miserable travelling every week of your life, we can’t honestly ask you to uproot and leave all of your friends and family- thanks, but no thanks.

Perhaps it was a sign that I wasn’t meant to be a consultant.  Either way, it was back to being an entrepreneur, and I couldn’t be happier.