It just isn't the right time.

Over the last five years I've had so many conversations with clients, friends, family members who have all been at the crossroads of wanting to do something - start a business, take a trip, have a hard conversation, move countries ... yet they always built this convincing story for why they shouldn't.

So often I hear some version of:

“Marchela, I hear you but it's too hard/ too complicated/ too expensive. It just isn't the right time.”

I've done this myself so many times.

Before leaving the corporate world back in 2020, I convinced myself to stay for months, telling myself to give it another year, get excited about how much better life would become when I got to senior manager/ director/ partner, how much more secure I'd feel when the money got even better, and how hard it would be to start all over and have to prove myself again. It was so compelling and it worked for years.

When I eventually left my corporate job, and the UK after 12 years of living there, to start my first business, it sure wasn't easy but I knew from day 1 it was the right decision.

I had no idea whether the time was right, whether I'd regret it later, or if I'd even enjoy the change but I chose to trust that I'll never fully know until I gave it a shot.

And somehow this gave me permission to go for it and look for signs of it being the right time later. It worked!

So often we tell ourselves stories that are honestly complete bullshit. Stories that are there to presumably protect us but in the end it's just our brains not knowing how to handle the uncertainty of change - even if it's the most positive change that'll level up our lives and make us so much happier.

The first business I started when I left my corporate career was a tech startup that is still running today which is pretty amazing. What isn't amazing is that it took me 3 years to admit how misaligned my co-founder and I were.

We had both left PwC to start the company, poured all our time, energy and expectations into it - late nights, early mornings, countless calls. How could I then tell him I thought I needed to step down and let him take over because our visions were very different and we were no longer a fit? It never felt like the right time. I eventually built up the courage to do it.

Because of that, I started my current business Wealthy Nomads and he went on to grow the startup to 12 people, working with top industry clients from all over Europe. Some days I wonder how much better and bigger life would be today for both of us had I not waited 3 years to take action I knew I needed to take months earlier.

I see it with my clients too, so many of them waited for years to move their tax residence from places like the UK, Germany, France, Italy, continuing to pay €30k/€50k/€100k of tax every year even though they had checked out emotionally from their home countries years ago - but stayed because it just wasn't the right time.

Imagine what you could do if you saved €250k over 5 years if only you had decided not to wait for the time to feel right - that was my client Jan's biggest regret. He took 5 years to formally leave Germany even though he knew 5 years earlier he was done with the country and barely lived there anymore.

Looking back can suck a lot because it brings up this sense of inevitability that we can't change what's already happened; the past is in the past.

But it also gives us the gift of learning: the next time we find ourselves at a crossroads again, (hopefully) we'll know not to wait again for the stars to align or the time to feel right but just go for it and trust that we're making the right decision. At the end of the day, things only make sense in retrospect.

Just last week I was talking to one of my closest girl friends who just had a second baby. She was telling me that even when she and her partner started trying to get pregnant, she wasn't sure if the time was right and that feeling stayed with her until little Aya was born.

It was only when she looked into her cute little eyes and held her cute little hands that she knew the time was right. Had she let the fear of the unknown overwhelm her, she wouldn't be holding her little baby right now.

Next time you buy into the BS that it just isn't the right time, reflect on one of these stories and ask yourself:

Would you rather live another year in the same country, at the same job, with the same person/ same level of energy, etc. etc. etc.

OR

Would you rather trust you're making the best decision you can with the information you have and look for signs it was the right time for it later?

Life only makes sense in retrospect.

Love,
Marchela