It's Time.

Time to begin something new. Time to start and time to conclude.

Time has always been something I've struggled with. There's never enough time. Sometimes, I've never even started and I'm already feeling behind. Even when the "behind" is completely imaginary—and most of the time it is. And although I'm far from winning the impossible battle against it, at this particular point in my life, time and I walked together.

• Remember when I told you in March about refusing a job offer from one of my dream companies? That company was Fever.

However, due to unfruitful salary negotiations, I had to accept that maybe I didn't want as much what I had always wanted up to that point. Refusing an exciting position when I wasn't completely satisfied with my role at ING was not easy. It was a bittersweet moment, filled with a lot of uncertainty. But believe it or not, I wrote the company a heartfelt message thanking them for everything, declining the position, and I spoke out loud to the universe: "Maybe it was not the time—but thank you for the opportunity." Being selected by a company I had always admired was already an achievement, right?

A little more than a month passed, and I received an email from the team lead at Fever. "Hi Micael, would you have 15 minutes tomorrow for a quick conversation? There is an opportunity that I'd like to speak to you about." I was leaving for my trip to Montenegro in two days, so we set up a call for the next day.

• She explained how the team was saddened by my decision to decline the position and how impressed they were with my performance throughout the process and their internal benchmarks—so much so that they decided to offer me a more senior position, this time with a salary that aligned with my expectations, if I was still interested.

I left for Montenegro the next day. And now, that team lead is my manager.

There are so many small lessons I could take from this story: From knowing our value and not settling for less, to always sending a thank-you email after a selection process—but for me, this was a lesson about timing. Sometimes the universe has a way of aligning things perfectly when we least expect it.

And there you have it! The news you’ve been waiting for two editions. Hope it was worth your time :)

With love,

Micael.