THE POINT OF NO RETURN
Like Archimedes leaping from his bath, there is a point in every startup journey when hesitancy melts away and there’s no turning back. This might take the form of a high profile, catalytic event, such as Mark Kahn telling his boss in a French casino that he was quitting his job or Lynn Ivey buying a piece of land on which to build her future center. But this is not always the case. Sometimes, the corner turned is a psychological one.
Eleven months before J. C. Faulkner left First Union to start his new company, he made a fateful decision while sitting in the office of a trusted mentor, Doug Crisp. Doug, who had hired J. C. into the bank twelve years earlier, was trying to lure him into joining his leadership team in a new bank division. J. C., however, politely turned him down. He said that he appreciated the offer but didn’t think a move was right for him at that time. “I haven’t accomplished everything I need to do in my current job,” he recalls saying.
“Really?” Doug asked. It sounded fishy. He pressed on, asking question after question, refusing to take no for an answer.
But J. C. wouldn’t say yes.
Finally, Doug said, “Jay, there’s something here I don’t know. This is a good promotion for you. Hell of an opportunity. More money than you’re making now. And I know you’d love to work for me. What am I missing?”
J. C. paused.
In two minutes, J. C. Faulkner had violated two fundamental rules of corporate success: Don't turn down promotions, and don't shareyour exit plans with a higher-level leader. But one of the bank’s top executives had flushed him out. “I had a trust level with him,” J. C. later remembered. “He’s the only guy above me that I would have told about my plans.” Looking back, J. C. remembers this as his point of no return, the moment that he knew for sure: He was going to risk everything he’d earned over the past twelve years and leap into an uncertain future as an entrepreneur.5
