Wait! Read This Before Quitting Your Job
Is it time for me to quit my job and start working for myself? Now, this question can have varying answers depending on your specific situation.
One good way to approach this type of question would be to first take inventory of your current circumstances. If you are unsure of how to move forward, keep reading and consider the following prior to making a decision.
First off, the biggest question to answer is how will you pay for next month’s rent if you leave your current job? (Your first and primary source of income). What’s that you say? You have 6 months of living expenses set aside? Awesome, that’s a great accomplishment. Unfortunately, for a majority of people this is not the case.
According to a survey conducted by Forbes, “nearly 7 in 10 Americans have only $1,000 or less in their savings accounts.” The study further went on to reveal, “34 percent of them have absolutely nothing set aside.”
3 out of 10 Americans are literally one check away from living on the street. An amazing occurrence taking place in the United States where earning potential is much higher than most parts of the world, but we’ll save that topic for another time. Taking that into consideration, the immediate answer is don’t quit your job yet.
Sure, it would be an awesome experience to walk into the office tomorrow morning and tell your boss “I quit,” while flipping a desk or two over on the way out. However, without a solid plan and savings already in place this wouldn’t be an option. Keep your job, it’s the only thing keeping a roof over your head and food on your plate right now.
This brings us to the other side of the argument which is, if I don’t leave my job I won’t have any time to work on my new business. While this statement is true and I agree with you, some tough decisions have to be made in order to move along the path towards freedom. What a lot of people don’t realize is there are so many ways you can learn about entrepreneurship and habits you can develop while still being employed full time.
There are really only two paths to take. Depending on your current savings, ambition, level of hustle, responsibilities, and willingness to sacrifice you can choose which fits best for you.
Path one, stay at the job you have while working and investing every moment of free time into getting your future business built. Read, learn, study, go to seminars, start putting together your brand, logo, marketing plan, network in the evenings and weekends, and continue your 9-5 while your business is running in your mind 24/7. Listen to audio books in the car as instead of playing music. Now traffic can be converted into valuable learning time instead of idle time on the road.
See, one of the biggest things that an entrepreneur must learn and develop is to become desperately obsessive about their business. Regardless of the industry or numerous other factors. Every entrepreneur is constantly thinking about their business, even when they try to turn it off. In the early stages of a business this is amplified even more. Not every person would like to be obsessed about a business and would prefer to relax and have as little responsibility as possible. It’s better to find out if this is you prior to making any major decisions. You’ll save a whole lot of time, money, and heartache by testing the entrepreneurial world to see if it’s something you really want to pursue. For an entrepreneur however, the option of relaxing and taking it easy while someone else drives is simply not an option. Your mind and heart will not allow it, and if you try to ignore it you’ll be miserable. You know who you are, if you are still reading this, you’re displaying characteristics of an entrepreneur.
Learning is paramount to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Educating yourself and building on your skill set and experience is extremely valuable. While working for another company as an employee, test yourself. See how good of a job you can do and how much you can advance. Whether your job is operating a cash register, selling furniture, driving with Uber, answering customer service calls, or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Bring your A Game. That will never change in any position. Having a positive attitude and giving our best efforts are skills that transcend across the board.
Are there other parts of the business you can learn? Maybe you’re in the Human Resource department and would like to get a little experience and knowledge in Accounting. See if you can chat with some of the people from that department and learn from them. Maybe you’ve never had experience in sales before, make friends with the people in the Sales Department. Are there any attorneys on staff at your company you can hang out with after work? Good, you buy the first round and prepare some questions before going.
One of the biggest realizations entrepreneurs have when starting a business is that they are now responsible for every department in the company. Even if it’s just a one person start up, multiple departments still exist with Sales at the forefront. Once you have sales that ties into everything else ranging from finance, accounting, legal, licensing and regulatory, human resources, operations, Information technology, marketing, payroll, and the list goes on. So before making the full jump into this world spend some time working and learning in your free time. Sure, this means less Netflix and more Google, Barnes and Noble, networking, and research time.
Do something really crazy. Make an effort to actually get a paying client into your business before you walk away from your first stream of income.
If your goal is to grow your financial life, (I’m assuming that is the reason why you are reading this), then you want to create multiple sources of income.
Walking away from the only thing that is currently paying you to start a venture which may or may not pay you for several weeks if not several months or longer is not the easiest or ideal route. Oh yeah, and 99% of the time raising money or asking for loans at the start up phase is for suckers.
With that being said, I must say that it is remarkable what people can do when your back is against the wall and you have absolutely no options left.
This would lead us to path two. You’ve had it, you are done walking down the road you’ve been on. It’s GO time. Burn the boats and jump into the deep end. It’s literally sink or swim. Full time job in the rearview mirror and you’re making a dash for it. This path comes with much more stress and difficulty. If you’re looking to build character, this will definitely help you achieve that. You will build lots of character on this path, possibly a little more than you bargained for.
All jokes aside, this path of sink or swim is really a life altering decision. You’ve got the opportunity to really invest your whole being into your venture. 24/7/365. If you make that push, in the right venture that makes sense specifically for you, you can reach your goals and beyond. Again, this option should be avoided if possible as it leads to extreme stress. Sometimes, due to life’s circumstances, avoiding this path isn’t always an option for everyone. If you happen to find yourself in this position, know that it’s the fight of your life. Take all your will power, discipline, and focus and got at it guns blazing. If you give it your all, you can definitely win this fight.
To wrap this one up, I think we’ve got some good variables to take into consideration when making such a huge life changing decision. Regardless of which path is taken, there is a guarantee you will be coming out the other side a stronger, smarter, and more resilient version of yourself. I hope that your sheer willpower, discipline, and work ethic take you soaring to new heights others only dream of. Regardless of which path you take, approach them both with the mentality that it’s GO time.
Until next time, keep pushing and progressing.
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