A couple years in and I need to remind myself how I got to "yes"; how I decided to quit a very good paying job to start a business I knew nothing about.
I had entered banking in 2010 after graduate school and, four years on, I was pretty miserable. A lot changes in finance but the hours don't, and I wanted a certain level of autonomy and creativity back in my life.
So when the idea for FITTED Underground showed up I was receptive, but I had my reservations. The idea felt compelling, but crazy. I didn't know a thing about fashion, let alone sewing, patterning and designing custom jeans, and skilling-up felt like a huge mountain to climb. Not to mention that other companies were already going down this customization road in some form or another. ...yeah, it just felt nuts.
A number of friends encouraged me, and one in particular got me started on a sewing machine. But the idea had begun to take root and I was experiencing little fits of creativity and a growing desire to just say yes to whatever this thing was.
But what made me make the jump was that over time, I couldn't not do it. And that's the right way to phrase it because I was resistant, and frankly scared of all the unknowns. But the idea had a soul and wanted to live, and I was willing to make it happen.
New ventures are messy. Things don't proceed in a straight line; relationships get strained; nothing is guaranteed. But if you love it, you do it. So after sitting with it for a couple of months and then working in the shadows for over a year, when the idea for FITTED Underground wouldn't go away I have to give myself credit because I said "yes". Sometimes the willingness that precedes the action is as important as the action itself.