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Today is my second to last day at Microsoft. This may come as a surprise to many of you who I haven’t talked to in awhile. Why am I leaving? Well, the answer to that question is complex, but I’ll attempt to explain. Up front, I want to say that I really respect Microsoft as a company and overall I have had a really good experience there. I learned a lot and I met so many awesome people. That’s what I’m going to miss the most, the people (like my officemate Gary). It’s kind of like breaking up with a girlfriend. No really Microsoft, it’s not you, it’s me. That being said - clearly everything wasn’t fine and dandy at work, or I wouldn’t have left.

 A big part of the reason I’m leaving is the fact that I’ve had 6 different managers at Microsoft. Some of them I really liked and some could have been better. There are a lot of re-org’s where management and group structure changes at Microsoft, but my experience isn’t typical. I’ve bounced around on a lot of different projects, but never really found one I was deeply passionate about. While I could have asked for a new project, or just changed teams within Microsoft, I didn’t feel like I could truly follow my heart at such a big company, and I’ve been yearning for more.

While this book wasn’t the only thing that made me want to leave, it did have a pretty significant impact on how I think about the world and what’s important. I may have to write a more detailed post another time, but basically, I didn’t know what the point of me working at Microsoft for 2, 5 or even 10 years would be. [Note: I am in no way trying to bash Microsofties or other people in the tech industry, the following is simply my personal opinion] Yes, I would be creating cool software and making lots of money, but to what end would all my work be towards? Right now I work for Live Search Mobile which creates software for mobile phones - particularly those phones that have mobile internet. The target audience for our products are power-users, early-adopter and business professionals - basically rich Americans.  And the U.S. is still one of the richest countries in the world. The way I see it, the work I do ultimately is targeted to make life easier for the richest of the rich.

I know that indirectly this can help people, and I realize that if there isn’t anybody innovating then no progress will be made. But for me, I like making direct, visible and tangible impact on the things I am truly passionate about. While I’ve always had a heart for the poor and wanted to help people, I think the moment I realized that I want to dedicate the next season of my life to fight global poverty was when I read the my pastor’s first blog post on fighting poverty. The Sarah McLachlan video in that post had me in tears. 6 months ago I realized I wanted to start making a difference in this world. I didn’t know where to start yet, so I did lots of internet research, read lots of books and talked to as many people as I could about this. Microsoft often has speakers visit to give lectures, and one that caught my eye was when Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and basically the founder of Microfinance, came to speak. His talk on social business (how for-profit companies can help eliminate poverty) really inspired me, but I still didn’t know where to start.

It wasn’t until I was separately approached by two different people in Seattle to gauge my interest in helping to starting two distinct ventures to fight global poverty. One would be a non-profit foundation  and the other would be a for-profit business with a focus to empower people in developing nations. While discussions about both opportunities are still in the early stages and no offers or committments have been made yet, this opened my eyes to the possibility of doing work outside of Microsoft. Even if I don’t end up with either of these ventures, I know I will eventually find something similar to dedicate my life to, and I wasn’t finding it at Microsoft. I realized that the only thing that was keeping me at Microsoft was the security it offers. Money.

Now I am extremely blessed to be in the position I’m in.  Having a Stanford Computer Science degree and experience at Microsoft gives me the job security that I could likely find some kind of job to pay the bills if I ever run out of money. I have been saving some money since I started working, and I figure that if I’m frugal I can probably last the summer without completely draining my savings paying for rent, car insurance, my car loan, healthcare, food and my beloved student loans. Most people wouldn’t do this - leave one job intentionally without another job already lined up. But, looking at this quote I wrote on my Facebook profile back in college, I realized I’ve totally been a hypocrite.

For me, nothing is worth doing half-hearted. For anything important to me, I will put my heart and soul into it. I have a “go all the way, balls to the wall, never give up” attitude that originates from my old soccer coach, but I apply it to all the things that I truly care about. Live life passionately, or it’s not worth living.

I’m a different person than the person I was back in March 2006 when I interviewed for this job. Back then my older brother Oliver was still alive and I was more passionate about technology and making money. After his passing, I changed the way I look at the world. Luckily, my parents have a new perspective as well. As I’ve shared before, Oliver chose to be a teacher despite his Chemical Engineering degree (and my parents weren’t that thrilled). But he made the right choice to follow his heart since he only had 3 years to work before he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Now my parents understand the importance of doing something your passionate about, and they fully support me in my decision. What a blessing.  

I don’t know exactly when it happened, but at some point I stopped being passionate about the work I do at Microsoft. It wasn’t my co-workers or my environment, but when I wasn’t able to be excited about going to work everyday (and I know you can’t really do it everyday), I should have realized I shouldn’t be doing it anymore. Perhaps I’m an idealist, because I know that the majority of people would say they aren’t passionate about their jobs and work is just work - it pays the bills. But at least for now I will maintain my idealism, my belief that God created me unique with particular passions and abilities. I believe there is a place for me to find the intersection of my passions and my talents, and now I’m on a quest to find it.

I already have contacts with various social start-ups, foundations and non-profits and a few informational interviews scheduled. I’m always looking for more, so if you have contacts to pass on, do let me know! I plan to intentionally take some time off to reflect, discern, research and really think about what I should do next with my life. I want to cast a wide net and consider all possibilities. My first choice is to stay in Seattle, though many people predict I will end up back in the Bay Area. I don’t even know if I’ll stay in the United States. My friend Adam is trying to get me to move to Japan with him in the fall, and I’m open to working for NGOs or Microfinance Institutes in Asia, Africa, Latin America or South America.

There are a lot of places out there…

I feel like I’m at a unique point in my life. God has blessed me with youth, health, education and freedom. I’m not responsible for anyone else besides myself. I hope to one day get married and have a family, and when that time comes I probably won’t be able to travel around the world to different third world countries (unless my future wife also wants to do that, which would be sweet!). So that leaves no time like the present. One of my colleagues at M$ told me how he lived in Honduras for a year when he was 24 working at a Microfinance Institute and he said it was one of the best experiences of his life.

For the short term, I’m just taking some time to relax, reflect and research. As for travel my first stop is going to be the Grand Canyon. Other places I plan to go are: Bay Area, Houston, New York City / Boston, etc, Hawaii, and hopefully some other countries eventually. If you have suggestions, do let me know :).

It’s a scary and exciting time for me, but I trust that God will guide me to the right place.

Update: I heard the video in my pastor’s blog doesn’t work anymore, so I added it below. Watch it. Trust me. You will be moved.