Celebrating Independence Day

Last Friday was Independence Day at The Ian Sanders Company. 24 years ago I registered my website address: iansanders.com. It was a symbolic step in my new life of going it alone.

Rewind to 24th November 1999. My resignation letter had been submitted. I was now days away from leaving all I knew behind, to start my own business.

It feels crazy to think I took the leap with no grand plan and no vision of what I might create. I just knew it was what I needed to do. And I had a dose of youthful confidence that it would all be OK.

Working in organisations with fixed job titles reflects back to us our career paths. Our LinkedIn profiles give us a neat timeline and trajectory of our roles as we move through our work journey. Not so in an independent work life. All the twists and turns, iterations, launched ventures, various hat wearing and project delivering - it all gets swept up under one title: as an independent.

And of course, it hasn’t always been plain sailing. There have been periods of time where I floundered for a bit, losing my way, trying to figure out my next steps.

I certainly didn’t know in November 1999 I was going to be able to sustain this work life for 24 years. Perhaps starting out with little idea of where I was going let me be freer than I would have otherwise. Having no set plan, or borders, or rules gave me the freedom to choose what to do and how to do it, without preconceptions of whether it was actually do-able!

It’s not always been an easy path. But it’s MY path. And that’s what I’m celebrating.