I Quit

No, I haven’t quit being a Happy Nomad, nor writing for this site. It’s a bit of a play on words since the verb “to quit” is the same in present and past tense. In this case, I refer to the past.

When I went home to surprise my mom for Christmas I opened a box and discovered some gold.

It was my box of stuff from Denmark and inside was my resignation letter, as you can see below.

Resignation Letter From Siemens

Resignation Letter From Siemens

Quitting my job wasn’t the first step I had to take to get this ball rolling. First I had to send a letter to the housing association where I lived to give them three months notice of my departure. It was that envelope, half way in the post box on Skolestien Street in Brande, Denmark where I had my gut check of whether I’m doing the right thing. It didn’t even occur to me until the letter was half way in. I remember thinking “once this letter goes in, there’s no turning back. It’ll start the whole process.”

As is obvious by now, I took the plunge and dropped the letter in the box.

It actually took a few days to see my boss to give her the letter. She was always too busy, which was normal, and finally I sent it as an email. All of a sudden a meeting was scheduled.

I didn’t have to give a resignation notice three months ahead of time, just one month. But as per Danish law, since I had been working there for more than six months, if they wanted to fire me they’d have to pay me three months pay on the way out. So I could submit this letter without any fear of retribution, and at the same time be nice so they could get the search underway to replace me.

I cited health reasons because it was true, I was often getting sick and not feeling well. I didn’t belong there and my body was telling me that. The further along I got in the Happiness Plunge process the worse it became.

My boss, though a nonsensical German, also had a big heart and she offered to let me take the month of April off to think about my decision – with pay! I didn’t like the idea because I had already made up my mind to leave. I told her no, because I didn’t want to feel guilty if I came back and still decided to quit. She said not to worry; if that was my decision she’d be happy.

So, I got April 2011 off and that’s when much of the development for this site happened. I had been brainstorming and going through lots of different ideas for the site, how to present information (initially I had planned one site just for my travel stuff and another one for my thoughts on happiness. I quickly realized that would be too much to maintain on the road), and even what to call my website and what I’m doing!

Now that I think back, I was truly walking into a new world without any knowledge and had to learn so much so fast. I think all of that was harder than hitting the road with my backpack, to be honest. But it proves my point of what you can overcome and achieve when you figure out your passions and let them guide you.

Below you can see some of the papers the madman Adam Pervez of 2011 took notes on to get thoughts down on paper and organize the stream of ideas that never seemed to cease. It’s not representative as many of those papers have notes on the other side too. I’m not one to waste! 🙂

Planning The Happy Nomad Tour

Planning The Happy Nomad Tour

I write this post to give an insight into my own story of taking the plunge. Though you can’t see it, there was a ton of work behind all those papers to get this new life started. It wasn’t a snap decision to quit or to start this new life. It was based on lots of homework and lots of listening to my heart.

I once again find myself in the situation where I need to brainstorm and make things happen. In this case it’s to create a business to sustain my nomadic, volunteering life. Interestingly, I had the idea while at home, though I don’t remember if it was the same day I found these papers.

What I do know is that the movies don’t lie. If you want something to succeed beyond your wildest dreams, take notes on the back of an envelope or a napkin. I can’t promise it’ll always work, but it certainly did in my case as you can see highlighted below!

Planning The Happy Nomad Tour On An Envelope

Planning The Happy Nomad Tour On An Envelope

4 replies
  1. Owen Lipsett
    Owen Lipsett says:

    Wonderful post!

    Thank you very much for sharing this story, and your story in general, Adam. The clarity and conciseness of your resignation letter is very nice and typical of your work. It’s really courageous that you said it was a matter of your health and very true. You’re fortunate that you had such an understanding boss. I remember when I stopped practicing law, my contemporaries were impressed, but my superiors were skeptical.

    I’ll bet you were probably healthier when you had this experience (http://www.happinessplunge.com/2013/03/hitting-bottom-in-an-indian-trains-bathroom-and-still-finding-happiness/) than you ever were at your old job. It’s funny, just yesterday my 10th graders were discussing which country they’d most like to live in and one said “Denmark – because the people are happiest there.”

    I’d love to see a close up of the envelope with your plan for the Happy Nomad Tour… and I’m sure I’m not the only one 🙂

    Reply
    • Adam Pervez
      Adam Pervez says:

      Thank you!

      Yes, it’s true. There’s something to be said about mental health, as its far more important to me than my physical health. Yes, on this trip my physical health hasn’t been great, in all honesty, but my mental health is far better than it ever was before.

      I wish I had a close up of the envelope to share! 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] – I have lots of thoughts swirling around my head. I need to start getting them down on paper and get a narrative going for sharing my thoughts and experiences with a larger […]

  2. […] cliff, ready to take the plunge into what I now call The Happy Nomad Tour, but at the time was a collection of ideas written on paper, I discovered that what was once a fear became an asset – something to be grateful […]

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.