A Sign

by Kristopher J. Evans
(Los Angeles, CA)

I wrote the following as the first post on my blog back in January 2008. I go back and read it often as a reminder of why I decided to leave the comfort of my job and start my own business...

The last several months I found myself depressed as I woke up in the morning, preparing to deal with my daily commute from West LA to West Hollywood to engage myself in the field of motion capture. Although motion capture is a very cutting edge industry that has offered me a vast knowledge of the production process and allowed me to rub shoulders with a nice list of celebrities, it seems as though that same cutting edge is slicing off a piece of my creative spirit day by day. My job is very technical and I rarely have the opportunity to express myself creatively. The only chances are when I volunteer to design a brochure for the company or take the time to re-design the company website, which I now assume was shot down by our corporate office since the very mediocre original site is still up months after I submitted my updated version with majority support from my office co-workers and the manager. I can feel myself about to go on a tangent, so I will get back to the point I initially intended on making with this post.

On one particular Monday, I woke up more depressed than usual with the realization of another week of heading in to work. I remember praying the night before, and many other nights before that, for a solution to my depression. Do I look in the direction of medication, the one choice I should pick as a last resort, do I start a new job search, or do I just suck it up and face everyday with a smile, even though that's the last thing I feel like doing.

So on this more than average morning of depression, I dragged myself into the shower, unenthusiastically brushed my teeth and hair, and put on my clothes with no concern if they were ironed or not, when usually I iron everything. Like every other morning, I took the shortcut behind my apartment complex to get to my car in the parking garage. Already in a disgruntled disposition, I tripped, which would have made my mood worse if I hadn't seen what I tripped over right way. I looked down in amazement as I picked up the object I tripped over. It was a book titled, “How to Start, Run, and Profit from your Home Business”. It was there in my path for me to trip over, there FOR ME to trip over!

Sometimes when we pray for things we feel like we don't get answers, but sometimes the answers come in strange forms. The answer for my prayers were already known to me, but I just needed to be reminded. I always believed that success with my career will come with creative freedom and entrepreneurship, and that sign I received was the stamp of approval.

In the meantime, I have to stay positive and realize that what I am doing now is a stepping stone for greater things to come. Although I am still in the same work situation at this time, starting by own business on the side and the processes I'm going through to get it off the ground are great uplifters for me and I'm so excited about the future!