LIMS/LI Group Changeover: The Morning After

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was stepping down from the LinkedIn LIMS/Laboratory Informatics group. After four years of working on building the LinkedIn LIMS/Laboratory Informatics group and thinking about it or working on it almost every day, I wondered what life would be like if I stepped-down from the top spot. I was a bit worried about how I’d feel about it the next day.

Actually, I don’t feel bad, at all. I worked to build the group and think I’ve found a good team to keep it going. After all, it’s not my group, it’s a group for our industry. So, the idea is that if I leave the group should still survive and I feel good about setting it up to be that way. I feel good that I set it up not just as some personal self-aggrandizement, but as something that can service our industry long into the future if our industry
makes that a priority. I can the great feeling of being able to say "I did that for my industry." So, while I was worried that I’d feel a great empty void the day after passing it along to others, instead, I feel positive about it. I believe they’ll do a good job. Additionally, as is my nature, now that I’ve passed it along, I’m now thinking about what’s next for me.

Over the years, and seeing a huge lack of true opportunity for consultants who want more than just to be a warm body that do the same thing day-in-day-out, I’ve come to think the only way to have that is to make your own opportunities, to some extent.

Having gone off to build my own business, I’ve gotten a chance to do a wide variety of things I’d never have been “allowed” to do if I’d  gotten one of the jobs I strived so hard but failed to get. So, in a way, failure is a way to drive us to do bigger things. After all, I’d never have gotten invited to write for the various industry magazines, nor to speak at so many of the industry conferences. I wouldn’t have been in a position to get
involved on the Advisory Board  of events like the SmartLabs Exchange. And I DEFINITELY wouldn’t have been allowed to participate in the LIMS/Laboratory Informatics group, let alone spend the great amount of time that I did to build it. Doing so, I got to meet many people outside my usual sphere and it was broadened my own knowledge of the industry.

And so, while it’s a hard thing to take when you’re looking for work and turned down for the industry’s jobs, it can lead to other things. I’m saying that to all of you who are out of work, these days. I know how it feels.
Today, I look forward, myself. I’m now in a spot where I’ve been-there-done-that with regard to the industry magazines and conferences and, while I’ve still got my newsletter and blog going, and now trying to figure out
what I’m going to do, next. After all, part of the great privilege of working for myself is that I can battle that ever-present need to keep finding new ways to expand my knowledge and opportunities without waiting for others to “allow” me to do it. And, with that, I’m off to think what I’m going to do with all this “spare time” (ha ha, as if any of us really gets any of that, right?) that’s leftover now that I’m not running the LinkedIn LIMS/Laboratory Informatics group.

Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/