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Call to Adventure

My career's next chapter.

Robert Greiner
Robert Greiner
3 min read
Call to Adventure

I remember the first time I read The Lord of the Rings. I understood viscerally why Frodo, Bilbo, and company decided to leave The Shire in search of adventure. They were drawn by a calling and an urge to break free from the everyday hassles of a ho-hum life. One hundred eleven birthday parties are a lot to celebrate in a single place.

Once the Fellowship got to Rivendell, though, that's another story. Rivendell is a sanctuary of tranquility. Its gardens and flowing streams provide a level of comfort and stability. Rivendell is a place of refuge, learning, and growth. Within its gates, the world seems at peace; it's hard to imagine ever leaving.

After twelve years at the same company, I am departing for a new adventure. We rarely measure jobs in decades, yet here I am, having spent a significant chapter of my life at one of the best companies on the planet to work for. I had a strong reputation, a level of comfort, predictability, familiarity, and certainty that I likely could have ridden to retirement. But today, I'm trading that in for a new journey toward an adventure with different opportunities, challenges, and the thrill of the unknown that you can't get within the walls of the familiar.

My favorite memories are with the humans I worked with over the years.

I'm joining a boutique consulting firm called Headstorm. As soon as I met them, I knew it would be a fit. They remind me of the Fellowship, a small, intrepid group hyper-focused on a North Star. Everyone brings their own experience, skills, and perspectives to forge a formidable force greater than the sum of its parts. The allure of being part of a nimble, high-impact team was too good to pass up. I love the idea of a small, focused, well-functioning team changing the world around them for the better, and I think I have that in Headstorm. I'm also excited about stretching my skills in new directions, particularly around helping clients develop new strategies and implementing them in a human-centric way.

Over the last twelve years, I've grown in ways I could have never imagined. I retooled my career completely from a technical implementer to a leader of teams. I've built a robust talent stack of skills and experiences with dozens of people I can genuinely call my friends. Looking back, my core memories are not of what was accomplished over the years but of the people I worked with and the stories we wrote together.

The thing I'm most grateful for, though, is that Pariveda helped me better understand myself. Before joining, I thought I was introverted and detail-oriented. I figured all software developers were introverted and detail-oriented, so why not me? In my first three months, I took Predictive Index training and realized I am extroverted and not detail-oriented at all (big surprise). The tension I felt in my career over the several years leading up to my time at Pariveda is hard to describe. How much longer would I have experienced it without being part of an organization that fervently focuses on human development? I'm grateful for Pariveda giving me the gift of understanding a little bit about how I'm wired, giving me a vocabulary to express that, and giving me feedback over the years to help shape it into something more productive and balanced.

As I step into the next phase of my journey, the legacy of Pariveda accompanies me. The lessons learned, relationships forged, and insights gained are not just part of a farewell; they are integral components of my evolving narrative. I leave with phenomenal memories, an enriched perspective, an expanded community of colleagues-turned-friends, and a heart full of gratitude.

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Professional optimist. I write a weekly newsletter for humans at the intersection of business, technology, leadership, and career growth.


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