A Calmer You.
A Clearer Path.
A Bigger Tomorrow.

Maya had been standing in the hallway for almost four minutes. She knew this because she had checked her phone twice, and the second time the clock had moved by exactly three minutes, which meant the first check had cost her a minute all on its own. The hallway smelled like carpet cleaner and the faintly burnt coffee drifting from the kitchen two doors down. Under the fluorescent light, the edges of her folder had begun to curl from the heat of her grip.

Through the glass wall of her manager's office, she could see Renee reading something on her laptop, one hand resting on a mug. Renee did not look busy. She did not look unapproachable. She looked like a person sitting in an office, reading an email, drinking tea. There was no obvious reason not to knock.

Maya had spent the better part of an hour preparing for this conversation. A short pitch — three minutes at most — about a process improvement she had noticed during her first two months on the team... Everything was ready. Everything except the feeling. Maya was waiting to feel confident before she knocked.

That was when Deshawn walked past carrying a laptop under one arm and a sandwich in the other. He glanced at Maya standing in the hallway and slowed down. "Just go," he said. "It never feels ready." Then he pushed the door across the hall with his elbow and walked in.

Maya knocked... The conversation went fine. Walking back to her desk, she opened her notebook and wrote two words at the bottom of the page: I didn't wait.