The Decision That Changed Everything: When Independence Became Non-Negotiable
- Dec 16, 2025
- 3 min read
By Ellen Di Resta
Founder and Managing Director of Pearl Partners LLC
The Turning Point
Way back in 2007 I made a decision that would define the trajectory of my career.
"I’m a Managing Director at a global innovation consultancy, I’m doing work I love, and I’m really good at it. I’m helping some of the world's most recognizable brands develop products that achieved remarkable market success. But there’s a problem I can no longer ignore: my brilliant but toxic boss.
Eventually I find that I’m spending more time shielding my team from dysfunction than doing the work I loved. HR offers no relief. My boss is the rainmaker, and a good one. So I do what many people do: I convince myself that I can deal with it.
At one point, I realize something needs to change, so I start pushing back. It doesn't go well."
The Cost of Staying
My boss depended on me to smooth over the chaos, and my resistance threatened that arrangement. The situation became untenable, but leaving felt terrifying. I had a reputation, relationships, the security of a well-known firm behind me. Walking away meant giving up all of that.
But I deep down I knew: I could no longer allow my career to be dependent on someone else's poor behavior. The decision to leave wasn't just about escaping a bad situation—it was about reclaiming agency over my professional life.
When I left to start my own consultancy, the response was surprising. Former clients became friends and eventually, they became current clients. One industry peer even told me, "We all know he’s toxic. The fact that you were able to work with him for so long made us wonder if you were also that way." Wow. It was a sobering validation of what staying would have cost me.
The Freedom to Make a Difference
Working independently opened new opportunities. I could now serve smaller clients and entrepreneurs who desperately needed innovation expertise but couldn't afford a global consulting firm. These were the people facing the brutal reality that 70-90% of new ventures fail, and they needed help.
Independence gave me the freedom to evolve my work in ways that mattered most.
I began teaching at universities in the Boston area, which had been impossible with my previous schedule.
The best part came a few years after working for myself.
"I’m at a typical networking event, and the buzz is always the same. Everyone is talking about their ideas, and it’s irritating me. I can’t explain why, but at one point I say to myself, “These people aren’t talking about ideas at all. They’re talking about products.”"
This was the realization that my work was about teaching innovators to develop the right idea before building products. This principle was at the heart of every successful client project I had ever done, and it became the foundation of my current business. Clients range from innovation teams within Fortune 500 companies and scrappy startups, to biotech pioneers, medical device innovators and university accelerators.
The Grass Really Is Greener
Breaking free from needing a company affiliation has been the most empowering decision of my life. I learned that allowing my career to be dependent on someone else's dysfunction, I wasn’t just tolerating bad behavior, I was allowing it to define what was possible for me.
I know without question: leaving was difficult, but it was also the best decision of my life.
Ellen Di Resta is the Founder and Managing Director of Pearl Partners. She works with Entrepreneurs and Innovation Teams in the US and EU to build the right idea before scaling. As a consultant, speaker and author, she teaches clients “You don’t need to spin faster - you need to build better.” In addition to consulting, she also teaches and licenses her methods to organizations and is currently writing a book about developing the right idea before building products.
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