Last summer I joined Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda as Chief Growth Officer, with a straightforward mission: to build a high-performing growth organisation. A lot has changed during this time, and so has the scope of my role. After multiple conversations and careful consideration, I realised that I simply don’t belong to the crypto world, so I decided to step down from my role and move on.
I’ve been a mom for more than 3 years now. For most of this time, I’ve been a working mom. Being a working mom brought a whole new level of complexity to my life. I struggled. A lot. I second guessed myself more often than not and held myself accountable to unrealistic standards. I failed, I learnt and I tried again. This post shares some tips on how to thrive survive as a working mom, learnt through my personal struggles.
Every once in a while I hear people claiming how sexy cool it is to work in a tech startup, as opposed to how bad it’s like in a corporation. The mere word “corporation” now has a negative connotation. You simply close your eyes and picture thousands of profoundly unhappy people working on mundane, repetitive tasks, overworked against their will, forced to only live after work and on weekends. At the other end of the spectrum there are the people in tech: mission-driven, passionate, always smiling, working relentlessly to change the world, all while relaxing in their special-designated areas and playing in their game rooms. Ok, let’s stop the charade now.
Every new year is commonly perceived as a new beginning. However, the only thing that changes is the calendar year. Not me or you. While it would be great to be able to reset every once in a while, truth is change is a process and it doesn’t happen overnight. So no, you’ll not be happier, healthier, thinner or richer starting Jan 1st. Or any other day for that matter. We’re pretty much the same as we’ve been the day before.
That being said, I think NYE is a good opportunity to take an introspective look, look back with a learning mindset and look forward with optimism and determination. And I don’t think resolutions are bad in themselves. Quite on the contrary, they are very similar with business goals & KPIs: only useful if they’re set in a SMART way, as your North Star, this time at a personal level.
Over the past 4 months, I’ve been spending time with my family. I’ve travelled quite a lot, read plenty of good books and took better care of myself. Looking back now, the decision to take a break was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. It’s incredible how much clarity a break can give you. I’ve learnt so many things (that I’ll share with you in a subsequent post).
Back in March I was writing that I’ll consider my sabbatical a success if I manage to stay away from work for 3 months. 4 months later, I’m very grateful for having done it. However, this is the longest I’ve been off since the summer holidays back in school. It was about time to get back to business.