Train quickie about Changes!

Salut,

I’m on the train back home to pick up the kids at school after a two day break they spent with their mom. Then, we will go to the restaurant, as we’ve been doing for many years now. It's the traditional Wednesday night dinner at the restaurant. Some traditions are not meant to change.

With all the turmoil in the market these days, with the merger of some companies and the disappearance of others, even successful companies like Google need to react to these changes. Don’t get me wrong, Google is in great financial shape. But Google being smart, and Google not sitting on its success (trust me, even with all the success it has, Google has never ever sit on it, it’s true), Google still need to make sure it will remain in great financial state.

But I’m not worried, and I definitely won’t complain. I have friends who lost their jobs recently, some great brand names are on the verge of disappearing, history is turning pages faster than ever these days… And actually, all in all, change is good… But change can also be frightening.

I was totally scared when the prospect of a divorce started shedding some of its darkness over my marriage… But 3 years after, all in all, I think it was a good thing. Not that the change I’m referring to here (even if you have no clue of what I’m talking about yet), is not nearly as bad as a divorce… But it is a change anyway, and it will rock the balance of things for me in the next few weeks.

When I started the process of leaving Softimage, about a year ago, it really felt like a divorce. I had been thinking about it for a few years, and I felt I was breaking something that I had built for over 13 years. I felt loyalty to my employer who brought me so many good things, and I accepted the less good things that came with it… Just like a marriage… A job is very similar to a relationship…

This time around, it is very different. I won’t quit Google, and Google is not going to kick me out either. So the relationship stays, but the context will change… Google is realigning some of its strategies and it affects my involvement in the product I’m currently working on. Yet, it is still unclear what I will be working on. The good thing is that I know it will be something more important than what I was doing before. Because Google is smart, Google wants to do the right things, and have the right people doing it. So I trust Google to find me a better nest to lay my eggs based on the skills I have. So it will be a good change, so why is it scary?

It is probably that moment, in the middle, where you know what you are NOT going to be doing but you don’t know WHAT you will be working on… This is a little frightening… Exciting at the same time… But still… Frightening…

So I thought I would share this with you, and I will most probably have more to tell you about this in the coming weeks. I will most likely have to travel to California to discuss this with other people there (I know, life could be so much worst)… So I will stop here for now… And will keep more for later… As for that Creators Club Redux I was telling you about this morning… More later… Stay tuned…

BYE
MAD...
Who won't change... the world changes... But life keeps rocking!