Ever since I was in middle school I remember being jealous of how the rich kids got all the friends and could afford all the cool stuff. As I grew older, I realized that money isn’t the most important thing in life but it’s still pretty important. I went to university, did the corporate life and here I am. I feel miserable, and I keep just extending and procrastinating the day I quit and start to work for myself. I keep telling myself, it would be safer if I had just a little bit more savings, or that climbing the corporate ladder just a little bit won’t be that bad. However, deep down I really want to just quit and start living the life I’ve always wanted to live, but I have to admit, it’s scary, because I don’t have a solid plan, and I don’t think I’ll ever have a solid plan, I just have ideas that I think I would start to work on when I quit and have the time, energy, and urgency to execute them, and then just rely on my entrepreneurial instinct to take me in the right direction and make the right choices along the way. Can anyone relate to my feeling?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1fik7it/everything_in_my_being_makes_me_want_to_quit_my/
Posted by khalkhall
9 Comments
We can all relate to the feeling, but don’t do it. It’s a shit economy and you could find yourself in a bad way real fast. Money always goes faster than you think it will. Businesses are extremely difficult to start, not least because marketing is an absolute bitch. Most people who’ve made it have left a string of failed businesses behind them. Can you afford to do that? Statistically, the first few things that you try to start will fail.
The best thing you can do is build a skill (if you don’t already have one) that you can freelance with. Freelancing is the stepping stone to entrepreneurship, and it will give you a lot of the freedom you’re looking for. But getting freelance clients isn’t easy either, so you better have an in-demand skill – if you don’t, acquire one. And start networking now. You will need a network to get anything off the ground.
Oh I can relate.
In retrospect I don’t think I had much clarity of thought.
I am glad I didn’t quit and make a big leap only to fall on my face.
I was employed at a large company that was purchased by one of the largest companies.
But at night I built a website that made me about the same as I was making at my job.
I sold that site and then started doing a bunch of other side hustles that didn’t work.
Then I got laid off.
I still had that entrepreneurial drive but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind.
I ended up working with a friend and realized I had a lot to learn about being out on my own. I was a really good indoor cat but I needed to learn to become an outdoor cat.
8 years later and it’s still not easy. I’ve had years in which I am making tons and years in which I am not sure what the future looks like.
Paying your own health insurance alone is a daunting thing (in the US).
If I was you I would say definitely don’t make a leap with no plan. Moonlight with a side gig. If something has traction maybe take a lesser job to help with the bills while you try to hit exit velocity with your side gig.
I guarantee there would come a time and wonder if you were crazy for walking away from a salary and benefits.
I totally get how you’re feeling—it’s tough to take that leap, especially without a solid plan. If you’re eager to start making money on your own, consider leveraging AI tools like [getgpt.ai](http://www.getgpt.ai) to help turn your ideas into reality. It can automate tasks and streamline workflows, making it easier to launch your ventures without needing everything figured out from the start. Sometimes, the best way forward is just to start, even if it’s a small step. You’ve got this!
You need to make sure you have skill sets in all the areas that you need for business.
Sales skills #1
Financial literacy & Quickbooks or bookkeeping skills #2
Think about all the roles that comprise the companies that you’ve worked for. As a business owner, you need to have some proficiency and skills in all of them. Decision making is not an easy thing.
Never quit your job to build a business.
If you don’t have the discipline to use the twenty-four hours that you have more efficiently, then you won’t have the discipline to see it through when things get tough.
There is no balance, and anyone that tells you there is is lying to you. You spin all of your plates and some of them drop and break and you pick them up and while you’re fixing them, other plates will drop and break, and it’s a cycle that never ends. I recommend people go to a counselor because it helps.
Expect it to take ten years. If you’re bringing something of value to the marketplace, you should see a reward before then. Part of your discipline and your value, though, is downsizing your life to give yourself as much runway as possible. Put everything and then some back into the business until you just don’t have to anymore. That takes years. We didn’t take anything from our business until the end of year four, when the cpa said.If we did not take money, we would probably get audited because the company was making 7 figures. It was hard, it was really hard with ten children.
Money is not the most important thing in the world, but it is up there with oxygen as far as tools go.
From the time you start until you can live, the life that you’re dreaming of could be well over a decade. Only eight percent of americans are entrepreneurs, and only one percent of that eight percent actually succeed.
There’s a better than good chance you will get started and make it possibly a few years and then have to start all over years later after you recover. This is the reality of business. You give up your boss to become the boss.And you realize that everything around you becomes your boss. It’s like having an infant. It’s 24/7.
Having gotten through those years, I can say it’s completely worth it.
How if it took me until I was sixty 8 to get to where I am now it would have been worth it, but i’m only forty-six.
It’s worth it, just make sure you’re prepared. It’s not about how much savings you have. It’s about having skills, character, and bringing something of value to the marketplace. Time is also a very important ingredient, because it takes the time that it takes.And you don’t control that no matter how much you want to.
Can absolutely relate – to the awful feeling of being stuck and to the existential dread of jumping ship to. I actually needed COVID to lock my butt and be let go before I started my journey for real.
It’s every bit as daunting as you think it will be, maybe more. But that’s the whole point of it. In a corporate life you trade freedom for safety. In an entrepreneurial life you trade safety for freedom.
The more rational people here (and the cautious voice in your head) are telling you to build something on the side and then switch over. That is indeed the rational thing to do – if you can bear it.
But from the sound of it you’re close to a breaking point. Building a business takes time, risk, guts, and a ton of creativity. That is very hard to do while trying to keep your shit together at a job you hate. It’s hard to do when you see your bank account quickly dwindling to nothing. But at least that pushes you to try harder to make the biz work, where as the job pushes you to give it up.
It’s up to you of course but I’ve always believed in jumping off the cliff first and figuring out how to fly later, and I live this way too. Your soul is crying out to take that leap. Don’t wait too long or the universe will push you into it and you won’t have a choice.
You’ve got this.
I’ve spent most of my 25 year career self employed, but I am in an employee position now. I’ve seen both sides.
My advice:
Do not quit your job unless you have enough savings to support yourself for at least 6 months, but preferably closer to a year. It will take time before the money starts coming in regularly. And also you don’t want to be pricing your work at a time when you desperately need the money.
Thinking you’ll be more motivated to get things done if you go out on your own may not actually be the case. Do you have a history of procrastinating? Working for yourself won’t make that go away.
Working for yourself isn’t as glamorous as you might think. Instead of one boss, you might have 6 clients, which end up being sort of the same thing. Except there’s more of them.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t go for it. But you need a plan. You need to start something part time first. Get some momentum, get some income coming in, and then when you really feel like the only thing that’s holding you back from being able to make it completely on your own is a lack of time because of your job, then make the jump.
Jim Rohn said – “work full-time on your job, and part-time on your fortune.”
I would advise starting your entrepreneurial venture now, and as it picks up steam jumping in head first. Get your savings to about 6mo. of reserves based on your current living expenses so you have a cushion, and get your business to producing some consistent revenue.
I built businesses while working full-time for about 1.5 years. It was grueling from a work-life standpoint, but you’ll begin to recognize the point where the business is sacrificing its potential because you’re still working a job. THAT is the time to leave.
Take a mentorship – learn things and execute – take another one – keep going. Start now.
Hard truth — if you can’t power through a job you hate in order to build a proper financial safety net and you don’t have a viable business model defined…
Chances are pretty close to 100% you will fail.
Have you done anything on your own? Go experiment with some kind of side hustle.
You need to learn:
Professional networking
Sales
Marketing
Finances
Potentially inventory management
The list goes on and on
You don’t need to make much money with this — the payoff is the new skills you build and it’ll keep you distracted from hating you day job.
Then when you have the money and skill set — make the leap.
Set a quit date, save 3-6 months of expenses, test your ideas now, learn needed skills, build a support system, set small goals, then take the leap.