I quit my job and left everything

After a few months away, I’m bringing this newsletter back to life. I’ll be experimenting with different topics until I find the right rhythm, but topics will mainly revolve around change and strategy in business and tech.

Thank you for staying with me!

Today, I’m sharing what pushed me to pack my bags and spend time in Medellín, Colombia.

Why I Walked Away

3 months ago, I quit a well-paid consulting job. 1 month later, I packed my life into 2 suitcases, brought everything else that didn’t fit to my mom’s and moved to Medellín with no plan. On paper, it looked reckless. For me, it was the only honest choice.

For four and a half years, I worked at Accenture advising some of the world’s biggest companies on innovation and emerging technologies. The role offered security in the form of a great salary, benefits, and balance.

It was everything most people would want from a career. But under the surface, I felt restless.

I’d explored new roles, internal transfers, and even international offers in Paris and Singapore. None of them felt right. Gratitude couldn’t quiet that inner voice that whispered, there’s something else you’re meant to do.

My Path Before Accenture

Uncertainty isn’t new to me. Before graduating, I co-founded a brand and web design agency that grew to six figures with clients across Canada, the U.S., Europe, and China. It was thrilling, but I realized running a marketing agency wasn’t how I wanted to spend my waking hours.

COVID hit soon after and I was able to find work with 2 startups. I learned a ton, including what not to do, but I still didn’t find alignment.

When a recruiter from Accenture reached out, no one knew how long COVID was going to last, so stability sounded like relief. I told myself I’d figure out the rest later.

A few years in, that stability turned into stagnation. I needed time and space away from managers, away from deliverables, away from the daily noise that left me too tired to think about the bigger picture…my bigger picture.

Why Medellín

I could’ve stayed in Montreal, but staying meant repeating the same patterns. I needed a different environment to force new ideas and new ways of seeing.

That’s how I ended up in Medellin. I’d visited twice before and both times I left changed. Colombia feels new, but not foreign. I speak Spanish and and I can move around comfortably. Yet, there’s enough novelty to keep me alert.

When you live in a different country, every small act, from crossing the street to buying groceries, feels like a test. It made me realize how much of my life back home I’d put on autopilot.

Breaking the Permission Habit

That awareness led to a shift. I noticed how often I waited for permission before acting.

Even crossing the street showed me this. At home, I’d wait for the pedestrian light. Here, you look, decide, and move. One day, I caught myself hesitating and thought, If I can’t trust myself to cross a street, how can I trust myself to make the big decisions in my life?

That question became the start of everything.

The Rules I’m Living By

I didn’t come here with a plan, just two rules:

Rule 1: Leave no weapons unused.
I once heard, “In a life-or-death battle, don’t die with a weapon still in your hand.” When I fly back to Canada, I don’t want regrets about things I didn’t try. Every idea, every skill, every tool, I’ll use them all.

Rule 2: If I don’t want to do it, I’m doing it.
Discomfort is the point. Growth hides behind the things that make me uneasy. Filming a video, building a personal brand, and reaching out to strangers. If I flinch, it’s a signal to go toward it.

Collecting Dots

I think of this season as “collecting dots.” You can only connect the dots looking back, but when you can’t connect them yet, you need to collect more.

Right now, I’m collecting moments, mistakes, insights, conversations. Each one’s a dot I’ll someday link into something bigger.

Facing Fear

The hardest part isn’t loneliness. It’s fear.

Fear that this will lead nowhere. Fear that I’ll burn through savings. Fear that I’m wasting time.

But fear is like fire. Left alone, it destroys. Managed well, it fuels rockets.

My goal isn’t to eliminate fear, but to control it—to turn it into energy that propels me forward like a trampoline

What’s Next

I started a fractional Chief of Staff offering under the same name of this newsletter, you can check it out here: ctrlshift.now (I’m particularly proud of the domain name)

I’m working with ambitious teams and founders, leveraging my experience advising multi-billion dollar corporations and navigating the scrappy startup world to unblock their biggest bottlenecks.

Crazy enough, I’ve had opportunities land in my DMs and inbox without me having to send 1 cold email.

Closing Thoughts

So here I am, 2 months into my adventure (so far with pit stops in Bogota and Guadalajara (Mexico)), collecting dots, following my rules, testing myself. I don’t know how this story ends, but I know I won’t regret giving everything I’ve got.

I’ll share more about the business experiments I’m running and what I learn along the way.

If this journey resonates with you, I hope you stay for the ride.

Oh and shameless plug once again if you want to work with me: ctrlshift.now

Keep building, keep going 🚀

Startups, corporates, it doesn’t matter. I've seen great ideas crash from not thinking a few moves ahead. That’s why I built the Straightforward Strategy Blueprint, a FREE template so your idea doesn’t become another could-have-been. Get it here.