Quitting Your Job

[nickynoodles]

What do people here think is the best way to go about quitting your day job?

- The Steve Pavlina 'burn the boats' way, which may involve taking a loan, living off credit cards etc.
- The safe and slow way, by gradually building up a second income in your spare time.

Does anyone have experience of how either worked out for them? If so, I'd love to hear.

At the moment I'm feeling like the safe and slow way may never give me enough time to achieve a good second income.

[Steve Pavlina]

FYI "burn the ships" does not mean "burn the food and supplies." Burning the ships means that you commit fully, making sure you won't turn back at the first sign of trouble. It doesn't mean torching your only means of survival.

[nickynoodles]

Ok, sorry to use the phrase in the wrong context. However, for many, giving up the day job is one way of commiting fully, and this means giving up their main stream of income.

I could try and tell myself that I'm fully commited to my business while only spending a few hours a week on it, but 40+ hours at work, but it doesn't feel that way.

From the 'Cultivating Burning Desire' article "For instance, if you want to launch your own business, you can begin by making the commitment to quitting your job."

What I'm interested in is the cross over point between a *commitment* to quitting your job and actually doing it. I'm trying to figure out what level of risk is acceptable for me based on the experience of others.

(and don't worry Steve, I'm not going to do anything rash just because of that one statement)

[norbert]

You didn't tell which industry you're in. Isn't it possible for you to find a part-time job or some freelance work? Like, if you were a web designer, you could be self-employed until your business or passive income streams generate enough revenue.

Do you live off the money you earn or is your family supporting you? Do you have any children who need to be taken care of? I think it all depends on how much risk you can handle in this phase of your life.

I've given up my day job 3 years ago and did freelance work until I managed to launch my company in September. I still do some freelance work occasionally. Also, I'm building up passive income streams (building traffic, selling ad space). Not that I want to talk about myself but wanted to give some specific tips.

I've found the following snippet today here while looking for advice for myself:

One must decide for oneself: Leaders and followers face different problems. The leaders have to wonder if the followers will follow them faithfully and the followers wonder if the leader will bring them to the "promised land". In essence, the leaders and the followers are slaves to each other's needs.

Both group faces problems, one has to decide which kind of problems he wants. If you think you're a leader, you should make that leap ASAP

[munish]

Originally Posted by nickynoodles

What do people here think is the best way to go about quitting your day job?

- The Steve Pavlina 'burn the boats' way, which may involve taking a loan, living off credit cards etc.

At the moment I'm feeling like the safe and slow way may never give me enough time to achieve a good second income.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
- Helen Keller

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.
- Anais Nin

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
- Amelia Earhart

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

You probably still feel paralyzed against taking action. That's OK. While diving right in and confronting a fear head-on can be very effective, that may require more courage than you feel you can summon right now.You may go broke. You may experience failure and rejection repeatedly. You may endure multiple dysfunctional relationships. But these are all milestones along the path of a life lived courageously. They are your private victories, carving a deeper space within you to be filled with an abundance of joy, happiness, and fulfillment. So go ahead and feel the fear - then summon the courage to follow your dreams anyway. That is strength undefeatable.- Steve pavlina

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once._William Shakespeare

[Conan Stevens]

I have a post on my site regarding this. It is called 10 reasons to not give up your day job it is probably appropriate to your current situation.

[Steve MacLellan]

Does anyone have experience of how either worked out for them? If so, I'd love to hear.

In the late 90's I was working at place that was making me sick from the amount of dust in the air. Laser surgery temporarily cured the problem but it re-surfaced two years afterwards and it was worse than before. Since I knew I would eventually have to leave the job, I decided my next move would be to start my own business and turn my hobby of web development into a business. I dreaded the thought of taking an entry level job someplace else, because I had a family to help support.

It was rough for awhile. During the summer of 98 I was working 12 hour shifts for the man 6 days per week. I was pretty sick for the first couple of hours when I came home. I would roll around in pain until it would subside enough for me to sit at the computer and work on my business. I was averaging about 4 hours of sleep per night, and my wife had kicked me out of our house, because I was so obsessed in getting my business up and running. I had to... it wasn't too long before I wouldn't be able to work.

Besides all of these problems the bill collectors became my worst enemies. We were on the brink of losing everything. The additional strain of us living apart and maintaining separate dwellings was breaking us. Then my business started to take off...

By February off 99 I was making more money on my business than I was at work. But, I was unable to work a full week anymore, so I had to quit my job. Still I was able to save the house and new vehicle we had bought and managed to pay off our creditors. Since I now had extra time on my hands, I was able to repair my relationship with the wife and move back home.

I've been self employed, more or less, ever since then, although it doesn't mean I don't have to still face the odd challenge once in a while. In 2000 after the dot com bubble burst, businesses were afraid to spend money on the web, and I had to take a job for a little while. Three months after I took the other job, my income was once again exceeding what my employer paid me, because I was able to build it back up.

My advice wouldn't be to quit your job without building up your business income so it surpasses what you get paid from your employer. Yes, surpasses... when you work at your own business, your income can vary from month to month so you have to be able to bank some of your income for leaner times.

Hopefully, many people will never have to experience the troubles I did. I didn't even mention how friends and family were ragging on me constantly to give it up. Some of them even dis-owned me...

I'm a very stubborn man. I just won't quit.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[learningtogrow]

How can you "be the person you want to be" if you're stuck in a job that stifles you? Do you lie to yourself and say "I'm not here for the money. I'm just here to learn and deal with challenges better?" Say you want to be a writer. Aren't you supposed to believe "I am a writer" and live your life like that and let the universe provide and not worry about where the money will come from? To me, that means not working a 9-5 job or do I still not understand how it all works. Isn't the bottom line about enjoying life NOW as Eckart Tolle expresses?

[John Wesley]

This is a subject I have a lot of interest in. I currently have a 9-5 job, but my dream is be totally self employed, or better yet, own my own business.

Right now I'm trying establish some income streams online while building the skills (writing, web design, marketing) that I'll need when I decide to make the leap. I think the hardest part is knowing how to prepare yourself to make money outside the corporate environment. There is a lot unknown territory, and this is frightening. Most people would rather be secure.

[rene_stpierre]

In my opinion, in order to succeed in a new career, you need to have financial stability first.

This could mean keeping your day job until your new career earns you enough. It could also mean, finding a way to finance your new endeavous and ensure financial stability while you ramp-up your new business.

If someone does not have financial stability, this person will most likely make bad and reckless decisions spurred by an urgency to make money fast. In the long term, this will have very negative effects.

On the other hand, someone with financial stability is not desperate for extra cash immediately and can take its time to make the right decisions for a long term success.

René

[dalante]

I am facing that challenge myself this year, as I am actively trying to quit my job to live my dream job. Here are some techniques that I use:

• Make more time
• Know my daily priority
• Steal some time back from work

Make more time
I have decided to wake up early to create more time to develop my personal projects. I have found that if I give myself 2 to 3 hours in the morning, I can make significant steps towards my goal. This means waking up between 4 am and 5 am.

Know my daily priority
If I am not able to wake up so early (it happens often, trust me), I must define clearly my priority. In my case, my priority is to get 2-3 hours of writing done a day. If I wasn't able to wake up in the morning, that means I'll have to skip the gym. It sucks for my health goal, but I have something more important to do.

Steal some time back from your work
There are a lot of little tasks to do to move forward on my project that don't require a lot of creative energy or time. For example: send an email, do a little bit of research to check some facts, set up an adsense account, etc. I find that I steal a few minutes here and there to accomplish these tasks.
I hope my boss never reads this!!

[thadroe]

Originally Posted by rene_stpierre

In my opinion, in order to succeed in a new career, you need to have financial stability first.

This could mean keeping your day job until your new career earns you enough. It could also mean, finding a way to finance your new endeavous and ensure financial stability while you ramp-up your new business.

If someone does not have financial stability, this person will most likely make bad and reckless decisions spurred by an urgency to make money fast. In the long term, this will have very negative effects.

On the other hand, someone with financial stability is not desperate for extra cash immediately and can take its time to make the right decisions for a long term success.

René

Great point, Rene. It's very difficult to make logical decisions when forced to act out of fear and desperation.

The big problem most of the time is that people just stay comfortable and never take action, even though they want to change their situation....man, I was that way for over 12 years. Now I've built up enough semi-passive income to quit thanks to stumbling on Steve P. almost year ago... gave me the motivation to quit sitting around and take massive action to quit my job.

I suppose in some situations though, taking a leap of faith is really not all that bad. Although I'd rather take the leap of faith with no money than to take it with a mountain of debt. Unfortunately, I had a mountain of debt...which is inches away from being paid off...then it's quittin day!

Thad

[Steve MacLellan]

Most people would rather be secure.

This is true. This is why most people choose to be employed, rather than self-employed. Then, when faced with the daunting reality of self -employment, other fears come into being. Fear of failure -- which can be paralyzing to those who succumb to it, and fear of taking that "leap of faith" that others have spoke about.

How bad do you want it?

The leap of faith was the most exhilarating ride of my life for the first few months following my decision to fly on my own.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

[munish]

Money is an important resource to be sure. But time is far more important. When you run out of time, then you’re really done. But what happens when you run out of money? Did you know that you can run out of money and just keep on going? Running out of money doesn’t mean you have to stop living, and it doesn’t mean you have to stop going after your dreams. You don’t automatically die when you run out of money. No referee will show up and haul you off the field. The game doesn’t suddenly end.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...o-feel-secure/

I’d gladly give it all up and live in a shack if that was the price I’d have to pay to live my mission. Tell your boss, “Talk to the hand. I don’t do soulless work anymore.”
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...-still-in-you/

[Conan Stevens]

Originally Posted by munish

Money is an important resource to be sure. But time is far more important. When you run out of time, then you’re really done. But what happens when you run out of money? Did you know that you can run out of money and just keep on going? Running out of money doesn’t mean you have to stop living, and it doesn’t mean you have to stop going after your dreams. You don’t automatically die when you run out of money. No referee will show up and haul you off the field. The game doesn’t suddenly end.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...o-feel-secure/

I’d gladly give it all up and live in a shack if that was the price I’d have to pay to live my mission. Tell your boss, “Talk to the hand. I don’t do soulless work anymore.”
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/200...-still-in-you/

Living without food or shelter is not getting anybody anywhere, thinking otherwise is living in dreamland. A job can and will help you get by (and learn skills) until you work out another way.

Being a dropkick loser does not help you or anyone you care for, and it certainly won't help gain your life ambitions (unless of course being an unemployed derelict is your life goal)

[escapee]

When i "burnt the ship", i made sure that i had at least 2-3 years of saving and i was so sure of my intention that i told my MNC director i wanted to be self employed ( not even an offer to work in foreign country -expat pay - could bring me back ) . The intention was mainly driven by one controversial article by Steve and my interest on the related industry. Result? I guess i'm doing alot better than before (both financially and emotionally ) and hopefully it will continue to grow.

The points i wanted to make about quiting your daily job are

1) You must be very sure of your intention ( the burning desire, interest and madness ). Would you tell your boss now about your intention to start your own business ?

2) Have at least a year of saving just in case the dream plan does not work out.

Very good and meaningful quotes from Conan's article

There are only two reasons to be an employee.... #1 reason: To build knowledge.... #2 reason is to build capital.. " - Brad Sugars

"Your first job is to buy back your time to work a way to get passive income so you never have to work again" - Brad Sugars

Good luck

[dor]

to me its like the question of whether you should finish school or not. .

People give examples of bill gates, larry ellison, dropping out....well most people who drop out end up drifting through life.

Same goes with quitting your job. most people end up drifting or in desparation getting some other line of work.

True many people who are fired end up in better jobs...

I think the answer will come to you when you're ready.

I would say if you don't know what you want to do, quitting won't help you. Those guys dropping out was not a result - i think of being 'sick' of school but being driven to something magnetically..... if you start something on the side then eventually you'll come to point where you'll know what to do. You'll want to do it.

If you don't have the discipline to develop something on the side "At the moment I'm feeling like the safe and slow way may never give me enough time to achieve a good second income."
Then its might be a good indicator you have to reshuffle your priorities or -and there is nothing wrong with this - you may want a more structured approach - getting an advanced degree and moving to a better corporate career -

[munish]

Originally Posted by Conan Stevens

Living without food or shelter is not getting anybody anywhere, thinking otherwise is living in dreamland. A job can and will help you get by (and learn skills) until you work out another way.

Being a dropkick loser does not help you or anyone you care for, and it certainly won't help gain your life ambitions (unless of course being an unemployed derelict is your life goal)

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. - Dale Carnegie

[PMcDonald]

Originally Posted by munish

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
- Helen Keller

I absolutely love that!!!

For most people, security is material possessions - a house, a car, etc. but try thinking of security this way and this was a profound shift for me when I finally got it...

Security is knowing that if all of your possessions were taken away, all your money was taken away, all your credit cards were taken away, and you were driven out to a desolate place in which you were unfamiliar and left with nothing but the clothes on your back - that you would find a way to get back everything you had and more because of the complete belief and faith in yourself to accomplish whatever it is that you set out to do.

How's that for security?!

As for quitting your job, you need to do whatever feels right for you. If you are in such a space that you absolutely unemployable anymore than perhaps you need to quit sooner rather than later. However, if you are OK with keeping the job while you build up income in your self employment ventures, then that is certainly what you need to do.

The point is, your situation is unique and only you can answer the question of when and how to quit your job. Take some time to really get clear on that - journal about it, write down the pros and cons of each possibilty and the answer will come to you.

Hope this helps!

Paul

[Isis Kali]

I'm dealing with this right now, as well, except that I already left the working world. I had some money, and the businesses that I've started have little to no overhead. However, the money's gone, and I'm in a scary place.

However...because I decided to face some of my fears, get help and backing, and trade labor for rent, I'll be fine.

I'm at that point that you'll end up reaching near the beginning of things...where the cash isn't flowing in like a tidal wave, yet you're struggling and poor (success isn't rushing along, clamoring to be made on according to your bank account). I have to say, "Is this worth it?"

My own thing: broke for now, but able to wake up and love my life. Giving value and being of service to someone else, which also helps me. Having the power to make money as fast as I'd like, with the responsibility fully in my more-than-capable hands.

Working for someone else, based on past experience: managers promoted to the top of their incompetence, assault, sexual harrassment, public transport expenses, noise, lack of privacy, rudeness, insurance (maybe? Hahahaha!)...and a little bit of cash. Even with part-time jobs, employers will try to get over on you in order to get FT work for little to no money.

I'ma be alright. I'd rather be my own woman than put myself in the hands of someone else. It's tight, I'm not gonna lie, but I have the power to make it better.

And...working FT while giving two hours a day to your business? I've never understood that reasoning. How can you give your all to the day job in order to excel at that, yet give your all to your own projects? It's no sort of life to sit there and keep on waiting for "oh, it'll be perfect if I have this much money!" or something, while you talk yourself into some false happiness and gratitude that someone is busting your balls for their own profit.

Do what you have to do. Only YOU know if cold turkey is right for you. But it's not for the faint-hearted, and I wouldn't do it if you've got dependents.

[Freelancer]

For most people, security is material possessions - a house, a car, etc. but try thinking of security this way and this was a profound shift for me when I finally got it...

Security is knowing that if all of your possessions were taken away, all your money was taken away, all your credit cards were taken away, and you were driven out to a desolate place in which you were unfamiliar and left with nothing but the clothes on your back - that you would find a way to get back everything you had and more because of the complete belief and faith in yourself to accomplish whatever it is that you set out to do.

How's that for security?!

This is so incredibly true that its fairly amazing, if you KNOW that you can get all your material possessions back because your BETTER than before this is true security. You know that nothing can take back the skills and knowledge you possess now and that it will always be available for you. So if something happens you can rebuild from scratch, this realization is quite powerfull...