At 35, I Have No Job
This is either going to be beautiful or the worst decision of my life. Here are a few inspiring thoughts you can use.
Today is my first day with no job.
No office to show up to. No dirty covid hands to shake. No emails. No calendar. No back-to-back coffee catch-ups. You might be thinking, “he’s smart, independent and on his way to millions.” Nope.
Covid struck today. The first day without a job is being spent in a full-blown lockdown (again). One of my biggest fears was quitting my job while lots of people have ended up unemployed as the result of a global health crisis. Just when things were on the mend, my fear came true, so in one way I feel ungrateful.
Remember why you quit.
When you’re not sure if you made the right decision, when it comes to a big event in your life, remember why you quit. Okay, here’s one of the strangest reasons I quit.
I quit my job to start a newsletter.
When I start a project I want leverage. I want people to know I’m not screwing around and dabbling. Without a job, I can work on the project that is the big reason why I quit. Not having a job gets rid of my biggest excuse to do anything in life. I’ve blamed my job (rightly or wrongly) on a lot of things.
No more job equals no more excuses. When things get hard (and they will) I’m going to remind myself that I did this to start a newsletter, which is code for become a better writer.
Dare to do it for $0.
I’m doing something odd. When people quit their job and go all-in on their side hustle they start to get desperate quickly. So they sell their soul for money. They charge money too quickly before the value is ready to be given out in return for a Visa or Mastercard.
My new project is designed to make $0. My goal is to last as long as possible without charging a dollar.
$0 is more accessible for more humans. A $0 challenge gives you the learnings needed for a paid business opportunity later on.
Let them laugh loudly at you.
Having no job causes people to laugh at you. I’ve had a few harsh critics throw their smelly horse poo over the fence at me. “He deserves to have no job.” I used to be them. I don’t think that way anymore.
I see other people as soft, cuddly creatures who are simply trying to food on the table for their beautiful family and a roof over their head. Wishing no food and no shelter on someone feels like a horror film.
When you make your move, people will laugh. There’s nothing you can do, except prove them wrong and dare to forgive them when you succeed.
Not experimenting leads to regret.
I already have regrets. Not necessarily about quitting my job at 35, but taking too long to do so. I could have done this two years ago — that’s the harsh truth. Yet, I let fear stomp on my dreams.
Keeping a job you hate versus living with regrets for doing so is the equation you’ve got to work out. Having regrets scares the tomato-stained pants off me. Regrets are those pain in the butt things the dying have to live with in the afterlife for eternity. Do you really want them?
Is this decision beautiful or the worst decision of your life?
That’s the question we’re faced with when we do something enormous like quitting our jobs. It depends on your viewpoint.
The worst decisions of my life have been secret blessings. I lived with the torture of mental illness for decades and did nothing about it. The devil shouted at my brain daily and I let him do it. If I could go back in time and change that decision I wouldn’t. My mind needed the torture.
Mental illness led me to rock bottom. Only from rock bottom could I find the motivation to get back up and make a different decision.
Through sheer frustration and not-giving-a-f*ck I made a few bold decisions: I got help, went to a strange self-help event, read “Think And Grow Rich,” discovered odd podcasts, stopped eating whole animals, gave up the booze, worked on myself, and found love again through a difficult dating app sales process full of heartbreak and magician’s misdirection.
The worst decision of your life becomes the best one looking back. So maybe you need to make more terrible decisions? Maybe the decisions you’re making are too perfect.
Perfectionism looks like making zero decisions.
Final Thought
Big decisions shake up your thinking once you’ve made them. You can live in fear or dare to dream what new direction you can head in. Fear is ever-present. So are incredible opportunities and people who inspire you to push the limits of what you previously thought was possible.
35. No job. Laughed at. Full of fear.
Yep, that’s when you know you’re ready to show the world what you can do. No job doesn’t equal no life — quite the opposite. Make your move.
