What does "Don’t leave before you leave."mean ? At 23, my career got going. I was midway through a master’s degree and had been hired as a part-time reporter for a finance website. I got a great one-month review and my boss asked if I was interested in staying with the company after graduation. 　　However, balancing graduate studies with work was challenging. To deal with it, I checked my real self at my office door. I came in to work, greeted my colleagues and listened more than I contributed in each morning meeting. The small team I worked with often seemed busy, so rather than giving ideas that might get turned down, I stayed back. 　　After four months, my boss called me into his office. The meeting was going well until he told me that despite the great work I had produced, the team had held a meeting and decided, “We don’t think it’s the right fit.” 　　I must have looked confused. “You’re ambitious, intelligent and will be very successful,” my boss said. “But you haven’t made enough of an effort to join the team. You lost the enthusiasm you showed in your interview. That won’t work long term, and if I could give you one piece of advice, it would be to let your guard down. Don’t leave before you leave.”