“‘We’ve been sold out’: Enviro justice advocates slam Biden’s climate compromise.” That’s the title of a Politico article that I read this morning. The thrust of the article? Compromises struck to get Sen. Manchin on board with the legislation risk harming frontline communities. “Sacrifice zones.”

The next time someone opines on what you should do, check it against your gut. In particular, where it feels as if someone is trying to “sell” you on their proposition of your choices, take a step back. Is that path truly aligned with what you want for yourself? You can save yourself a lot of wasted time, potential harm, and disappointment by allowing your inner wisdom to guide you.

It was our first wedding anniversary. Both being nature-lovers and especially enamored with the ocean, it felt right to go there to celebrate our first year together as husband and wife. The cold weather was the perfect opportunity to do that in peace, without the inevitable hardened stares of small-town white people – Florida natives and transplants from the Midwest and North. Homogenous in style, generally over age 50, and dripping with the markers of their politics and ideology—Trump 2020 bumper stickers, “assault life” decals on their cars, fishing shirts and weathered faces, perpetually sour and angry. The cold weather would drive away those people, who invariably come with the hostile body language, the disapproval and visceral disgust showing through their tightly pressed mouths when they see us. They wouldn’t be there. That was our expectation.

I wrote recently about my love affair with full-time consulting and entrepreneurship, which is admittedly in its honeymoon phase. I meant every word as I celebrated the freedom and advantages self-employment carries for someone like me. AND as I said at the end of that article, it’s not for everyone, and there are downsides. So, in keeping with my firm’s value of authenticity, here are my observations about what’s difficult about going out on your own, and some remedies I’ve found thus far…

I finally said “no.” An employee of an organization with an annual operating budget of over a million dollars asked me to have a phone call to discuss needs around DEIJ – without offering to pay for it – and I declined.

Think about a time when you were proud of an accomplishment, and the credit for that accomplishment was given to someone else. I think most people have experienced at least one instance of this — whether it be at home, school, on a ballfield, or at a job. How did you react? What were you conditioned to believe is the appropriate response?

I’m troubled by a trend I’ve noticed over the past several years, in which the tools and language of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) efforts are being adopted and levied for nefarious purposes. I’ve encountered numerous professionals who seemingly had no interest or lived experience which would have prompted them to think about anti-racism prior to the 2020 great “racial reckoning” (that wasn’t), who now wield a vast vocabulary informed by DEIJ training in order to avoid accountability for perpetuating white supremacy. Read that again.

It was with a heavy cloud of dread descending on me that I realized, circa July 2020, that an expectation had infiltrated the world of work in policy advocacy that I found decidedly illogical, and therefore, rejected. I’ve never been keen on doing things simply because they are the latest, mindless trend advanced by people who apparently never gave their utility or propriety, their costs and benefits, a second thought. The camera-on virtual meeting frenzy, and the expectation that every single meeting needed to be a V-Con, fell into this category from the beginning of the pandemic for me, and I don’t see any good reason for changing that position.

May I never have to eat these words, but I will never go back to being an employee. I believe in the power of intention, so I shout it firmly. Never! Nunca! After being let go from a job at the height of the pandemic in September 2020, I decided to go full-time as a consultant and incorporated my firm in August 2021. I cannot imagine being an employee for someone else ever again, and I won’t, if I can help it.