What I Noticed After Nine Years
When a company you loved becomes a company you've outgrown
“Awareness before action.”
-The ENOUGH Principle: Notice
For nine years, I had worked my way up.
Retail Store Manager. Flagship Store Manager. District Manager. Finally, a Business Development Manager on the wholesale side.
I knew the company’s products and customers deeply. I had over twenty independent locations, plus the largest department stores in NYC. In my first year in that role, I drove a significant increase in revenue by doing one thing: showing up.
I treated every door like my own. I trained staff. I merchandised showcases. I optimized sales plans and improved customer experience. I loved watching each location grow because someone was paying attention.
Then the strategy shifted.
The company decided they wanted more doors, not better ones. Cold calls and prospecting. New locations over nurturing the ones we already had.
The work that had driven all of my area’s growth was no longer the priority.
What They Wanted to Measure
My boss started monitoring my calendar.
She wanted to make sure that I had enough time blocked for leads and prospecting. The key metric was no longer revenue. It was outreach: how many cold calls, how many follow-up conversations, how many potential doors.
One evening, I sat at home staring at a presentation I had to update. Another deck showing how many cold calls I had made that month.
I knew this deck was keeping me from the stores that actually needed me. I knew what actually worked. I had proven it.
But the company had decided that what worked wasn’t what they wanted to measure.
What I Finally Noticed
The company’s new strategy wasn’t wrong. It made sense for where they wanted to go. It just no longer made sense for me.
I was built for depth, not breadth. For growing what existed, not chasing what didn’t. The work that energized me—training staff, optimizing sales plans, building relationships door by door—was no longer the work they needed.
I even proposed a hybrid approach. My colleague was excellent at opening new doors. I was excellent at growing them. We could split the work by strength.
It wasn’t going to be a possibility.
That’s when I finally noticed what had been true for a while: I had outgrown the role. Or maybe the role had outgrown me.
Either way, the fit was gone.
The Coordinate: Notice
In the ENOUGH Compass, Notice means awareness before action. It’s the pause between stimulus and the story you tell about it.
Most of us skip straight to fixing. Noticing is the discipline of seeing clearly before you move.
The problem wasn’t just the cold call metrics. It was the belief that if I just worked harder, adapted faster, and performed better, then things would eventually align.
Noticing meant admitting they wouldn’t.
Ask yourself:
What’s actually happening right now?
What am I assuming that might not be true?
What have I known for a while but haven’t wanted to see?
What the Culture of More Gets Wrong
We treat awareness as inefficiency. We rush through reflection because it doesn’t look productive.
But noticing is the beginning of every wise decision you’ve ever made.
You can’t align with your values if you can’t hear them.
This is scarcity versus sufficiency with attention.
Scarcity says: stay busy, stay visible, stay responsive. The one who moves fastest wins.
Sufficiency says: slow down long enough to notice what’s actually true. Moving fast doesn’t help if you’re headed somewhere you don’t want to go.
A Small Practice
This week, notice where you’re spending energy on work that no longer fits. Not to judge it. Just to see it.
Ask: Does this align with who I’m becoming, or who I used to be?
The answer is already there.
You only have to stop long enough to hear it.
See you next week.
P.S. I’d love to know: Where has the fit started to fade in your life? What have you known for a while but haven’t wanted to see?