Free Rise

The line beeped. The call center sales agent answered. “Thank you for calling Wells Fargo. How can I help you today?”

The caller claimed to be a business owner whose business was on the verge of skyrocketing. But he had gotten an offer for 0% on new purchases if he opened a new credit card, and he wanted to know if it would apply for balance transfers as well. The agent adeptly explained that it wouldn’t; it only applied to purchases. She turned to me and rolled her eyes as the caller rambled about how successful he was and how much money he was going to bring to the bank if they’d only take on his interest-free loan.

After a few minutes of babble by the caller, the agent hit mute and looked at me and uttered 10 words that distill the entirety of this immensely complicated American economic situation:

“These days everyone is rich, and they all need money.”

—

You may have heard by now that I have put in notice at Wells Fargo. My last day is August 30, 2007, after more than five years in the small business division. It’s been ingratiating to see the shock in people when I tell them I’m leaving. Wells Fargo is more like the mafia than I thought — if they can hack the corporate world, people do not leave.

Seriously though, Wells Fargo has been a fantastic employer; I highly recommend it as a workplace to anyone seeking broad career opportunities, work-life balance, and phenomenal management practices. I mean it.
Starting on September 10, I will starting a new career at Yahoo! as a senior product manager for monetization strategies with My Yahoo. It’s a thrilling opportunity with a cool company in transition, and it will be fun to be in the core of this business. If you haven’t tested out the new Beta of My Yahoo, please give it a test drive and tell me what you think.

Why am I switching companies when I’d built up five years of juice at Wells Fargo? There’s the diversification of the resume. There’s the excitement of the opportunity. But more than anything, there’s change. Change is good. Change keeps you from ossifying. Change prevents atrophy. Change keeps the universe from passing you by. Change keeps your job from getting automated or offshored out of existence. Change is often forced upon you, but when you force change it becomes your choice, and it give you choices.

So I chose to leave Wells Fargo for Yahoo. I’ll leave behind dozens of friends and memories, but I’m excited about the new, open world of possibilities.