The Unexpected Gift of Starting Over

There is a move that looks like retreat but is actually strategy. And it takes real courage to make it.

Tip #4, “Take a Step Back to Leap Forward,” from The Luck Field Manual by The Polymath Investor describes it this way: sometimes you have to go down the ladder a bit to climb a taller ladder and take the shot you would otherwise discard. Do not be afraid of temporary setbacks if they open up a path to greater gains.

In professional life, this might look like leaving a prestigious title to pursue work that is more aligned with your values. It might mean stepping off a board to make room for a role that stretches you more meaningfully. It might mean admitting that a relationship or partnership has run its course so that energy can flow somewhere more generative.

I wrote about this years ago after reading Dr. Henry Cloud’s Necessary Endings, in which he states, “In your business and perhaps your life, the tomorrow that you desire and envision may never come to pass if you do not end some things you are doing today.” He goes on to say that endings are a natural part of the universe. And he is right. Endings, in fact, deliver unexpected gifts.

These moves are hard because they look, from the outside, like loss. And in the short term, they sometimes feel that way. But the people I most admire, the ones who seem to attract the most robust opportunities and the most sustaining relationships, are often the ones who have been willing to let go of something good in pursuit of something better.

The Polymath Investor notes that lucky breaks often come to those willing to trade a little now for a lot later. That might mean leaving a comfortable role before you are pushed. Closing a chapter that no longer fits so a better one can open. Saying a gracious goodbye to something that served you well but has run its course. The step back is not the story. The leap is.

Trust the longer arc. Sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is give something up.

Happy Networking!

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This post is part of a series inspired by The Luck Field Manual: Rules for Engineering Serendipity by The Polymath Investor. The full manual is well worth your time. Read about it and download it here.