Issue #9 – The Day I Almost Walked Away

There was a moment — a very real one — where I almost quit project management.

It wasn’t burnout.
It wasn’t the workload.
It was the slow erosion of meaning.

🧊 Endless status meetings.
🧊 Political back-and-forth with no clear owner.
🧊 Deliverables that nobody used, but everyone obsessed over.

I was managing timelines, budgets, deliverables… but I wasn’t building anything that felt real.

🔄 What Pulled Me Back

A colleague — someone who’d seen me lead under pressure — said:
“Joey, you don’t need a new job.
You need to redefine what this job means to you.”

That was the spark.

It wasn’t about leaving PM work.
It was about re-owning it.

I wasn’t just there to manage scope.
I was there to align humans around something valuable.

To bring clarity in the fog.
To make the hard decisions.
To help people do their best work.

That day, I came back.

🧭 The Shift That Changed Everything

❌ From: Deliverables manager
✅ To: Outcome-driven leader

❌ From: Corporate mouthpiece
✅ To: Honest translator between strategy and execution

❌ From: Just another PM
✅ To: The one who could actually move things forward

That identity shift didn’t just save my career.
It fueled everything I’ve done since.

💡 Take This With You

If you feel like quitting… pause.

Ask yourself:
Is it the work?
Or the way I’ve been taught to do the work?

You’re not here to run the machine.
You’re here to lead people toward progress.

That’s worth staying for.

Want to tell your story of a turning point in your PM career?
Hit reply — I’d love to hear it.


See you next week


Joey