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Today I announced my resignation from Factiva. I’ve been contemplating a move for several months now and the starts aligned in such a way to open up a door for me (thanks Mie!) at Six Apart, the folks who put out the software that allows me to create this site. I’ve had a good run with Factiva, starting in 1996 with a stint at Dow Jones based in Tokyo, the birth of a Factiva, relocation to the Princeton headquarters, and a two year run at managing the flagship product, Factiva.com. Everytime things got a little boring, Factiva always managed to find something interesting for me to sink my teeth into. A lot of thinking went into this decision and it’s become clear to me in this process that an incremental change of job title is not enough and it’s really time for me to shift gears and jump into a new company.

I made the decision last night to accept Six Apart’s offer and while waiting for my boss to get off the phone so I could tell him of my decision, I strolled down to the credit union to close my account. I was grilled by the teller there for my reason’s to close down the account:

“Why do you need to close your account?”

“I’m transferring (me not wanting to break the news before telling my boss)”

“A lot of people keep their accounts even if they are located elsewhere”

“I’m, err, actually transferring to another company.”

“That’s ok, you can even get your new company to deposit their paychecks here, I just want to inform you of your options.”

“Um, that’s ok, I’m actually going to be quite far away.”

“That’s not a problem, we have electronic. . .”

“No, really, that’s not necessary. I just want to close out the account. . . ”

“OK then, but you know there’s a $5 charge to close your account. Good luck to you.”

Today was a day of telling selective people the news – after the first few, it became easier and easier to broach the topic. I feel like a skydiver who has just pulled the rip-cord and now am reaching terminal velocity for what I hope will be a safe landing – GERONIMO!