Tomorrow is my last day to go into the HP offices as an HP employee. I thought it would be best to let all my friends and co-workers know via the traditional good bye letter:
— begin letter–
It is traditional to send out a spam-a-gram when leaving, so here it is :-) (Friday, May 28 will be the last day I can check my email box. See the contact information below.)
Why am I sending this to you? It is because we had worked together at sometime in the past. Perhaps during my time working on Compaq Inline (96-98), in the Market Intelligence group (98), AtHome Showroom (98-99), Athome Store & the other eCommerce solutions (MyStore, SMB, CA, ISCS, etc.) that evolved out of that (99-2007), CTO for IT Office & EA program (2007-2009), or in ITI (2009-Present).
Why am I leaving? For many years I have wanted to run a business from soup to nuts, to be in total control, to be limited only by my own capabilities. I am not sure there will ever be a better time for me personally than now to do that. I realize that I could easily spend a few more decades going along my current path without ever making that jump. I plan though to take a little break in the summer to spend with my children. But when their school starts backup in August, this new business will be my focus.
How to keep in touch? You can always email me at my personal email address: Nathan.price@gmail.com Feel free to add me to your Facebook (www.facebook.com/GadgetNate) or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/pub/nathan-price/2/32/ab7) networks if we are not already connected. If you are interested in how my little venture progresses, you can check it out on my personal blog www.GadgetNate.com (I haven’t kept it up to date, but that will change in the fall.)
–end letter—
I got a lot of supportive emails! Thanks to everyone! Here is a sampling:
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Good luck Nathan for your future endeavor.
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Best of luck! I respect you tremendously for taking the challenge. Please keep in touch and I hope only the best for you and your family.
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Wish you all the very best for future endeavors. Let be in touch.
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Good luck in your new phase in life….. given your attitude and drive, I’m sure you’ll make it!
Will definitely miss that lovely smile and can do attitude……
Take good care and God Bless you in your new adventure!
Keep in touch!
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Wow !!!!!
What’re you going to do ?
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Those were just a few of the emails.
It is great to have the support of people that I have previously worked with. I wanted to give a little more details about my plans. I know that a lot of people are wondering what I will do.
The first thing that we have done is trimmed back our expenses, way back. We have also trimmed back on a lot of savings and investment that we were doing so that we could live within Sonia’s salary. The immediate goal is to stay cash flow positive and not have to dip into savings.
I gave my notice 7 weeks ago. I did not want to make a statement by leaving, and I wanted to give my management time to adjust to this move. They have been great with this transition. If you get a chance to work with my current team, I believe you will be happy to work with them. Over the course of these seven weeks, I have been thinking about all sorts of plans, and what I should do. My wife suggested I take it easy and spend the summer with the kids. Initially I resisted this idea. I kept thinking that I needed to hit the ground running and to start bring in as much revenue as quickly as possible. But seeing how we have been able to reduce expenses and live within one salary, it makes a lot of sense. The kids will grow up so fast, and they will be back in school in less than 80 days.
My plan for June, July and the first part of August is to just spend with the kids. We have some things planned. A week at Boy Scout camp. A week of chess camp. A road trip to New Jersey for a weeding, with many stops along the way. Of course we are going to do swimming, study math and Hindi, and play lots of games. Basketball, air hockey, ping pong, monopoly, risk, civilization, etc.
In the middle of August when school starts back up, I will then focus on my business. What is that? Well, it has been a hobby for 4 years. It only grossed $2,000 last year. And it is something that doesn’t seem like a sure when at first, but it is something I am passionate about. It is something that I think with focus, dedication, that I can be successful with. It is a language learning website: www.ISpeakHindi.com
There are several other sites I have done some work on that I want to continue with as well:
www.ISpeakSindhi.com and www.HabloHindu.com
And there will be more. I am not sure what the revenue potential is, but I hope it is in the tens of thousands. It should be an interesting experiment. I will be documenting my journey here. So, stay tuned.
