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Yes, the time has finally come. I put in my notice a little over a month ago that I’ll be walking away from my job at the end of the year to get started on my own journey in entrepreneurship. I haven’t posted on here in a few years but given I never made an intro thread I thought I would post one now that I have reached this point. I accomplished everything I wanted to in corporate America. I have reached the pinnacle as I had defined it for myself. So let's review. I work as a software dev and I make over 200k per year (plus great benefits). I work on average maybe 2 hours a day, sometimes less. All of my work is remote at this point so I don't even need to go into an office. Some days I don't do any work at all. Some days I only send like one email. If we go with an average of 2 hours per day though, that means my work is currently valued at around $400/hr.
And I F*cking hate it.
If I were posting this on a lot of other sites people would think I was crazy. But that's how I feel and I'm ready to quit. Some people would think this is a great gig. A minimal amount of work is still perceived as adding sufficient value to my team and company to justify my rather large salary. When I told my manager I would be leaving he said I would be missed and could come back if I wanted to. My coworkers told me the same thing. But the negative aspects of this have finally reached a tipping point for me.
Now, a little background. I've been exposed to an entrepreneurial mindset since I was 20 and in college. I saw some other people take that path a long time ago, but for whatever reason I put it off and went the slowlane route as it seemed safer maybe, and I perhaps didn't feel I had what it took to work for myself. Now at 35, I'm finally ready to start. This post provides a bit more background into why I held onto this job the last few years. I was making good money and figured I could start something more fastlane on the side since my job required so little time. I have to credit @lowtek with something he said in that thread though, which is that if I stayed I would become infected with slowlane mindset, and that's exactly what started to happen. When I didn't have to do much work at all to still make 200k, I lost motivation to do anything more.
Another thing that really grated on me was the reality of needing to focus on someone else's work requirements at the start of my day. When I get up in the morning I want to do what I want to do, not check my email to see what meetings I have or what reviews I need to do for someone else's projects. Recently there have been some days where I just ignored work until 4pm or so while I did what I wanted to first. Those days were by far the best I've had in a while, and I still managed to do better work for everyone else once I put myself first. The sense of adventure and pride you have when you are directing your own ship is not something that's easy to trade away for money. Having that feeling every day is what I crave now.
Recently I started to think more deeply about my situation. I don't care at all about the work I'm doing for this company. Sure I guess maybe it's helping their customers, but I don't really care about their products. I'm still trading my time for money, so I'm only doing it because I'm required to. Then I started thinking on another line. If my current skillset is valued at 200k+ for a minimal amount of work by corporate America, imagine how much I have been selling myself short. How much more could I accomplish if I was putting in a lot of meaningful work on a project I actually cared about? What if I actually cared about the product I was building? What if my standard of success was exponentially higher than what I have settled for in exchange for an easy life and the comfort of stability and low effort? I think the answer is more than I could even comprehend right now, and that's why it's time to find out.
I'm also taking this step now because I have enough money saved that I could have no income for at least 2 years and still feel comfortable. That much time gives me a blank canvas that I can use to fill in anything I want, and that excites me. I also had to get over the common misconception that to work for myself I had to have some revolutionary new idea that would change an entire industry. As we know and as I learned, most businesses are not revolutionary new ideas, most are incremental value adds in established markets. I've already identified at least 4-5 potential income streams around a broad category that is what I want to focus on, and that really inspires me. I can't wait to see what the future holds now that I'm finally taking it into my own hands.
I'm reminded of something Tony Robbins often says which is that we always get our musts but rarely ever get our shoulds. I realized that building my own businesses was just not happening for me until I made it a must. Once you cut off the comfort of someone else providing your income and it's time to either sink or swim on your own, that's when real growth and personal transformation shows up, and you find the strength of will to accomplish something great. Once I had that understanding the decision to quit my job and start out on my own made so much sense and I'm ready to see it through.
And I F*cking hate it.
If I were posting this on a lot of other sites people would think I was crazy. But that's how I feel and I'm ready to quit. Some people would think this is a great gig. A minimal amount of work is still perceived as adding sufficient value to my team and company to justify my rather large salary. When I told my manager I would be leaving he said I would be missed and could come back if I wanted to. My coworkers told me the same thing. But the negative aspects of this have finally reached a tipping point for me.
Now, a little background. I've been exposed to an entrepreneurial mindset since I was 20 and in college. I saw some other people take that path a long time ago, but for whatever reason I put it off and went the slowlane route as it seemed safer maybe, and I perhaps didn't feel I had what it took to work for myself. Now at 35, I'm finally ready to start. This post provides a bit more background into why I held onto this job the last few years. I was making good money and figured I could start something more fastlane on the side since my job required so little time. I have to credit @lowtek with something he said in that thread though, which is that if I stayed I would become infected with slowlane mindset, and that's exactly what started to happen. When I didn't have to do much work at all to still make 200k, I lost motivation to do anything more.
Another thing that really grated on me was the reality of needing to focus on someone else's work requirements at the start of my day. When I get up in the morning I want to do what I want to do, not check my email to see what meetings I have or what reviews I need to do for someone else's projects. Recently there have been some days where I just ignored work until 4pm or so while I did what I wanted to first. Those days were by far the best I've had in a while, and I still managed to do better work for everyone else once I put myself first. The sense of adventure and pride you have when you are directing your own ship is not something that's easy to trade away for money. Having that feeling every day is what I crave now.
Recently I started to think more deeply about my situation. I don't care at all about the work I'm doing for this company. Sure I guess maybe it's helping their customers, but I don't really care about their products. I'm still trading my time for money, so I'm only doing it because I'm required to. Then I started thinking on another line. If my current skillset is valued at 200k+ for a minimal amount of work by corporate America, imagine how much I have been selling myself short. How much more could I accomplish if I was putting in a lot of meaningful work on a project I actually cared about? What if I actually cared about the product I was building? What if my standard of success was exponentially higher than what I have settled for in exchange for an easy life and the comfort of stability and low effort? I think the answer is more than I could even comprehend right now, and that's why it's time to find out.
I'm also taking this step now because I have enough money saved that I could have no income for at least 2 years and still feel comfortable. That much time gives me a blank canvas that I can use to fill in anything I want, and that excites me. I also had to get over the common misconception that to work for myself I had to have some revolutionary new idea that would change an entire industry. As we know and as I learned, most businesses are not revolutionary new ideas, most are incremental value adds in established markets. I've already identified at least 4-5 potential income streams around a broad category that is what I want to focus on, and that really inspires me. I can't wait to see what the future holds now that I'm finally taking it into my own hands.
I'm reminded of something Tony Robbins often says which is that we always get our musts but rarely ever get our shoulds. I realized that building my own businesses was just not happening for me until I made it a must. Once you cut off the comfort of someone else providing your income and it's time to either sink or swim on your own, that's when real growth and personal transformation shows up, and you find the strength of will to accomplish something great. Once I had that understanding the decision to quit my job and start out on my own made so much sense and I'm ready to see it through.
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