Your call will soon be placed into conference
A man on a rock with 4G and a candle that's burning from both ends.
Peak summer. I’m tiptoeing on a rock at the highest point of an island in the Swedish archipelago. I know there’s reception here because I mapped it out. I extended the mooring maps of the cruising guide with 4G.
A few minutes before the meeting and I’m sweating after the climb. Deep breath. It smells like warm pine forest.
My young family is in the yacht, moored in the bay below. This is our sailing holiday. Time out in the short Swedish summer.
I’m in the leadership team. The company is turning around. We have fought so hard and we are successful! The CEO expects everyone to be available, always, and there are no excuses. I’ve made sure there is signal on this rock, so he will never hear one.
The batteries are not recharging.
I look at myself, for a second. What am I doing? If this is what success looks like, then it’s not worth it!
The thought passes…
The candle is burning from both ends.
“Your call will soon be placed into conference.”
I don’t tell anyone where I am. Just join in as normal.
“Andreas here.”
A few months later we win a house auction, and lose it at the last minute. This is when I realised this is not the life that I wanted.
Six months later we land in Whangārei, New Zealand, after saying goodbye to our loved ones, selling everything, and quitting our jobs.
It was like an allergic reaction where the heart decided before the mind could.
There are crossroads you only see in the rear-view mirror. This was one.
I don’t know any of that yet. I wasn’t really annoyed. I was just feeling cornered, and in that moment, when I was waiting to get connected, I could see the parody of it all.