The Story
The Story I was working for an advertising agency in Turkey but my dream was to have my own agency and to be my own boss. The pressures of starting a new life and a new job in a new country were beyond anything that I could have expected. It was a culture shock for sure and doubts were beginning to creep in. Did I make the right decision? What was I doing here? How long did they expect me to smile and pretend that I was having a fine time adjusting? To make matters worse, it appeared that my boss and some colleagues didn’t seem to care about helping me with the language barrier I was facing. It seemed that I was left alone to fend for myself and I was miserable. Six months later, my boss called me in and basically gave me a glowing review. In an ironic way, he gave me all the confidence I needed to quit, and so I began preparing for my own business. I opened up my own office in the living room of my flat in downtown Istanbul. I hired some interns and even managed to turn a small profit in no time. However, I was ill-prepared for dealing with all the challenges of running your own business (especially in a foreign country). For instance, I had no idea how to approach “payroll” and so found myself, spending more money to acquire the skills that I could’ve have easily picked up if I had stuck it out at my previous job.

This experience taught me how to take advantage of a great opportunity. I could have learned so much more if I had stayed around a bit longer. Instead of seeing the pros of the situation, I was wholly consumed by the cons. Looking back, it was the right job at the right time and perhaps if I had reached out to more people, it would’ve been a smoother transition for me. Sticking it out would have given me more tools to accomplish my goal.