A Fourth Quarter Dream Gig
Late in 2022 my partner Paul Price and I were asked to help an old customer with a new problem. The customer was a Fortune 500 consumer brand and the project was to review of their internal tech team and organizational structure and make recommendations for improvement. The project was the first time I had been consulting in nearly 30 years, but the scope of the project was right in our wheelhouse, the client was someone we really liked and respected ,and the fee and the timeframe were both fixed, so we said yes and invited another old colleague Justin Reed in for the project.
For the next 8 weeks we dove in, held many, many virtual meetings and then flew to New York to meet with the team face to face over three days. We then took all of our notes back home and drafted and then delivered our report.
This may not sound like fun to some people reading this post, but we had a blast. The three of us had spent the majority of our careers working in and on startups with an infinite number of problems to solve and far too few resources to solve them. In the startup world the horizon allways seems to stretch on forever and the hamster wheel just keeps spinning. So to have a project that:
Used the knowledge we have obtained through all our experiences.
Had a fixed scope and fixed timeframe.
Allowed us to work with people we liked and respected.
Paid us fairly.
was pure bliss.
Once the project wrapped up Paul and I were chatting with Justin and we all kept saying how much fun the project was. I then spoke with several other friends and work colleagues who have had similar careers and when I described how I wanted to work in this final quarter of my career they all echoed my sentiment. Everyone wanted to stay busy and active, to work with smart people on difficult problems, but nobody wanted a full time job. We all wanted complete flexibility. To work hard for a couple months and then to go away for some period without having to worry about what was happening back in the office.
I will grant this is a dream gig. Working when you want with amazing people on really interesting projects. But hell why not try to build a dream job for the final quarter of your career?
This feedback along with the interest from the client side got me thinking about a new kind of consulting firm. One where you only took the jobs you wanted to take, where they were all fixed fee and fixed scope. Where you are not responsible for selling, but have the ability to leverage your network for paid referrals. Where the consultants all have a small degree of separation and trust one another to deliver high quality work. Where the admin is handled by someone else and there is no need for the company to grow, because there really is no company it is just a network of highly experienced individuals coming together to do great work on their own terms.
The more I thought about it the more it resonated and became something I could not let go. So as a result we decided to start Q4 Advisors. It's a small consultancy focused on great work. We have recruited some incredible talent and are excited to be out working in the market.
If you have a need for some experience in your organization contact us we would love to chat.