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Change

October 25, 2011 by Ben Yoskovitz

I’m just starting the process of changing a great deal in my life. It starts with my professional life, where I’ve taken on a role as VP Product with GoInstant. That’s the catalyst for a lot of other change as well.

Most of the moves I’ve made in my professional life have been fairly drastic. You could plot the path in an evolutionary sort of way, but it certainly was never intended that way or planned. It’s hard to plan entrepreneurship. Many of the changes I’ve made have been fairly blind – jumping in with both feet – confident that “it’ll all work out in the end.” That level of confidence has allowed me to get through a lot of difficult situations. It’s been my lifeboat more than once, keeping me afloat when everything felt like it was sinking. And that confidence allows me to take risks, go left instead of right, and hopefully persevere to big success.

Ultimately, the most frustrating times I’ve ever had weren’t a result of jumping in blind and taking on new challenges; it was the gaps between those moments (when I was stuck) that killed me. I’ve had a few colosal moments of inertia. I spent 10 years with my first company. It experienced a lot of big, blind, risky change, but the last few years or so were painful. I stayed too long, got too comfortable and ignored my own personal desires and goals. There were reasons (read: excuses!) that I used internally and with others to justify the inertia, but it was bullshit. I knew it then, and I certainly see it now.

Change isn’t always good. But it has all the potential in the world to make your life better if you go out and seek it. Waiting for shit to happen isn’t the answer. For all the stress and frustration that exists when you’re in the middle of something, doing it, trying to make it happen, investing your life, your energy, your money, your soul — trust me: it’s much worse and more hopeless in the gaps, when you’re doing none of those things at all.

Filed Under: Personal Development

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Ben Yoskovitz

Founding Partner at Highline Beta, a hybrid venture studio and VC firm that works with large, ambitious companies to identify new areas of opportunity through internal and external innovation.

Previously I was VP Product at VarageSale and GoInstant (acq. $CRM), and Founding Partner at Year One Labs.

Angel investments include: Breather, Spoiler Alert, SendWithUs and others.

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