Being prepared for the move to Atlanta didn’t really take place like it probably should have but it didn’t stop me from moving to the “BIG” city. I have lived here for 13 years and I’ve realized that it isn’t that big. I knew in middle and high school that I was going to move to Atlanta. I had my mind pretty much made up, living in a small town all of my life just didn’t fit me. The only goal that I set for moving was a date, I knew that I wanted to move on January 1,2005. At the time, I was a bank teller with a bank in my hometown in South Carolina and I wasn’t in the best position there. I made a lot of mistakes on the job so it put me in a probationary situation and I made one mistake during that period and was forced to resign my position. I went into a moment of “I don’t know”. I needed a job so that I could pay the one bill that I had at the time and to save for my move to Atlanta. Luckily I built great relationships with a lot of my customers from the bank along with my co-workers and they really looked out for me. So one of my customers offered me a job which ended up being a great opportunity for me. I was able to stay within the Finance field, learn some managerial duties and work with one of the major accounting software programs in the world. I was super excited. During this time I realized that this was my shot, my chance to make the move to Atlanta. I called my aunt who lives here and asked if I could move in with her until I found my own place and she said yes “Thank you Jesus”.
My original plan was to move to Atlanta in a year but this pushed the move up by a year. So on December 31, 2003 I moved to Atlanta with no job and no savings… two huge problems. The company that I was working with at the time in South Carolina was super flexible and allowed me to work for them 3 days out of the week and the rest of the week I spent in Atlanta going to job interviews, temp agencies and learning the city. After about 3 months I had two job offers and I was floating on cloud 9 because before those job offers came in I was thinking about moving back to SC. I was tired of driving back and forth between Atlanta and Belton every week and I still had bills that needed to be paid. But thank God two jobs came through and I took the 9-5, sometimes I look back and ask myself if I should have taken the other job as well but can’t go back and change that now. I am so grateful for the woman that took a chance on me. She was very cool and she gave me my first glimpse of entrepreneurship. The puzzle of my life started to take shape with her help.
Since I can remember I have always wanted my own business but never knew what it really looked like. I didn’t grow up around a bunch of entrepreneurs. My great grandfather owned and operated his own barber shop but at that time I was just concerned with being a kid. So on River St. is where it started and I knew for sure that I wanted to have my own business. Now I’m working, still have no savings and bills are super behind. However this post is to reflect how I gave no thought to what I didn’t have prior to moving here but moved here with no fear and was willing to do whatever it took to make it.
Preparing didn’t matter to me then I threw caution to the wind and took that leap of faith and trusted that I would be just fine no matter what. Never mind the fact that I really had no real understanding of what responsibility looked like or even felt like. Before moving to Atlanta I paid a car note and the rest of the money was mine to deal with. Now I have a car note, rent, gas, food and anything else that I may need or want and although my mom was still willing to help it just wasn’t as easy.
Now in 2017 being prepared looks like a lot of overthinking everything and not accomplishing anything. I’m training myself to not think so much about the steps that I want to take and the goals that I want to accomplish because for every one reason I have to do it I will think of 3 reasons not to do it and those reasons will stop me from moving forward. Throwing caution to the wind, believing in my dreams and goals and being prepared but overthinking has to go. Being prepared looks different for everyone. You have to find your level of being prepared and remember that no matter how prepared you may be there will always be something to throw you off just a little bit. That is a test to see how bad you want it. Don’t give up just keep going.
Sometimes you just have to prepare as you go …
One major thing that I have started doing is asking God the question…Is “this” (whatever your this is) what you want me to do? He will answer you if you really want to know and are ready to listen.
What are some ways that you prepare or move forward with your life?
I hope this post was helpful and that you could relate and until next time live life simply while making it extraordinary.
Xoxo,
Zony 🙂