You’ve been sitting at your desk looking over at your boss looking at you. He’s been over there looking at you looking at him. You smile professionally. Maybe you’ve known for some time that this dude is a snake. Perhaps he’s not a snake. It’s entirely possible that he’s a real nice person with a real hard job to do and perhaps has some unfortunate circumstances to deal with.
Doesn’t matter. Fuck this guy.
Can you stand even one more minute next to this son-of-a-bitch? Does the thought of it put a knot in your stomach that makes it hard to sleep at night on account of the dread of his stupid voice in the morning? What kinda more-with-less corporate-speak mumbo-jumbo are they gonna try and feed you today?
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.
Bob Dylan
It’s likely that most people will advise you not to quit your job. I won’t.
I don’t claim to be an expert on “sticking it to the man,” but I can tell you what my thought process was and how I justified quitting my job.
I have never taken kindly to people telling me what to do. In the workplace, I often found that what I was being told to do by my superiors went against my better judgment. I just can’t abide by that type of thing for long. It makes me unhappy. I don’t take orders well and I don’t do dress codes.
I’m here on this planet to create cool shit with my friends; cool shit that inspires other people to laugh and to be creative too. I’m not here to make some cell on some executive’s spreadsheet turn from yellow to green every month.
So what’s important to you? What do you want to do with that time that you have here on earth? How much stuff do you really need to be able to live the life you want to?
Life is short. It would be tragic to spend most of it in a place you hate, doing a thing that you don’t want to do, just that so you can buy shit that you don’t need.
Are you prepared to quit your job?
There are some questions which you need to think about. Is your family on board with this? Have you talked it through with them? Do you have the support of your spouse and dependents? Everyone’s personal situation and risk appetite is going to vary wildly, so make sure you’re on the same page.
Have you been saving? How much have you been saving? How much of that savings are you willing to use to cover your lack of revenue? Will it sustain you for the rest of your life?
Do you have any debt? Remember that every bill you have equates to revenue that you need to find somewhere. If you have credit card, student loan, or auto debt, I would recommend working towards first finding a better, higher-paying job. Use the income from it to pay off those debts before quitting your job entirely.
For the last several years, my wife and I have worked to pay off all of our debts – with the exception of our mortgage. She still works in a field that she loves and she makes a decent wage. Since we’re married, I’m eligible to be insured through her employer. We have no children, and she is comfortable with this risk because she believes in my potential and the potential of MacNeil Media Group.
Does your family believe in you? Do you believe in you? If you all believe in you… I’d trust that.
What’s your plan?
If you can’t live the rest of your life off your savings alone, make sure that you have a feasible plan to generate the revenue you’ll need.
Do you have another way to make money? Surely, you must. There are some skills you’ve acquired over the years. Think about the work you that are doing for your current employer now and ask yourself:
- Can you do that as a freelancer or a consultant?
- Are you good enough to teach others?
- Could you sell your knowledge as a suite of products or lessons?
Maybe you’re good at something else entirely. People can and do make lucrative careers out of just about anything. It happens all the time. There are lots of ways to make money.
Is it expensive where you are? Do you need to think about moving to another place? It’s a drastic move, but people who do it often report being happier in the end!
Is it time to downsize, sell all your stuff and travel the earth in a Volkswagen bus selling your art on the street? Maybe! Who is anyone to tell you it’s not?
What kind of person are you?
I’m a very creative and self-motivated individual. The last five years of my career were spent working from home under little-to-no supervision for a well-respected fortune 100 tech giant. In that time, I learned how to focus my attention and get things done without going into an office each day.
Not everyone is ready for that though. You need to honestly and accurately assess your personality.
When I talked to my wife about quitting my job and going out on my own she told me that she was ok with that, but that I needed to first come up with 4 sprints worth of work to advance our goals first.
It is very easy, especially in the beginning, to treat all of that time which you used to spend at your job as free time – when really, if you’re gonna do this, almost all of your time needs to be spent hustling. That’s the game, yo.
Eff it, I’m out. I quit.
So either you decided you’re ready, or you’re impulsive enough to move forward anyway. Congratulations to you! You’re living the American Dream. I sincerely wish you luck.
Now that you’re not going to work tomorrow, what’s next? Do you have your task list set up? You’re gonna need one! Check out this article for more on personal productivity.
You’re on your own now so you’re going to need to manage your own sales and support pipeline. I can help. Stay tuned for more about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and managing your business with open source tools and software.
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