Several months after starting my software company, one of our clients went out of business. A programmer there had been laid off. At the time, our company was just me and a buddy. We were getting a bit busier, so I asked the propgrammer dude if he’d like to work with us part-time. He said he could for a little while, but really needed a full-time job.
Over the course of a few days, I convinced myself it’d be okay if I hired him full-time. When I gave him the good news, he said, “My friend is also looking for a job, and I only want to come if you’ll also hire him.”
I told him I had no idea how I was going to pay his salary, let alone two.
Walking by a bookstore that afternoon, I saw a quote in the window: “Leap and the net will appear.”
So, I leapt. And the net appeared: within a week of hiring both of them, we landed a giant project we couldn’t have possibly completed without them.
I’ve told that story many times. It’s in the book I published six years ago. It’s a lovely story, and it makes for a great business lesson.
But since writing it, I’ve come to see something deeper about the nature of things "working out."
The idea that we push ourselves beyond our comfort zones, and then some magic "out there" reaches out to save us from the fall—that's an illusion. It implies we were ever actually in danger.
The truth is much quieter.
Leap, and see that the ground has always been firmly beneath you.