How To Quit Your Job To Follow Your Big, Stupid Dreams
Sometimes the stupidest life choices are actually the wisest.
I recently wrote about how foolishly quitting my job ended up being one of the smartest moves I ever made.
While giving up a regular paycheck, comprehensive benefits, and a secure future isn’t for everyone, for the creative types who’re chained to a 9 to 5 job, I think it’s an alternative worth contemplating.
If you’re thinking about making the leap from employed worker to unemployed artist, here are some considerations to mull over:
List the pros and cons of committing career suicide
When tabulating the costs and benefits of my verdict, I found that there were more perks to staying at my job. However, one bonus from the “just quit” side kept calling to me: “Desperation is a great motivator”. My work at the time was unfulfilling and discouraged me from pursuing other endeavors, so the decision was obvious to me.
Create a strategy for your life as a starving artist
Determine how much money you’ll need to not die each month, outline what you’re willing to sacrifice, and estimate how long you can survive based on how much you already have. You may have to stay employed to make a little more money to pad your bank account, which is fine — remain a corporate sellout for just a while longer until you can go completely indie.
Make the leap (but leap on good terms)
Quit, but don’t make any enemies with your employer, because you may have to ask for your job back. Also, keep your friends in the industry, because if you find that you’re not the overnight success you thought you’d be, it’s good to have contacts who can put in a good word for you if you decide to go back to working full-time.
Remain open to the weird places life takes you
I originally thought I was going to create success on the spot by writing a humor writing blog, but that got almost no traffic, so now I’m on Medium writing about all kinds of stuff and in the process of writing, directing, and scoring a short horror film.
And that’s ok, because discovering your latent talents is an exhilarating experience.
Who knows? You may end up in a much better place than you planned.
Struggle
It will be hard, you will suffer, and you will fail.
But adversity is one of the great founts of wisdom and growth.
By putting yourself, intentionally, in a position of challenge, you’ll be amazed at the resourcefulness, imagination, and stamina you never knew you had, and your work will flourish because of it.
Making this kind of choice should frighten you, because breaking the rules of logic’s jurisdiction comes with many risks.
But what is life without a little fear and risk?
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” ― Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
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