Two years and three days ago I probably took the most important decision of my life – to quit my job and go after my dreams. I just finished reading my resignation e-mail where I told my boss that I’m fed-up with investing my time in helping other people’s dreams grow while mine stall. I read that e-mail each time I feel like I need a boost in motivation.
Doing the math, if I were to follow the employee direction, 1/3 of my life would be wasted on someone else’s dreams, as I was spending about 54 hours weekly at the job plus transport to get back and forth.
To be honest, although I was speaking about dreams and goals, I wasn’t really sure where I will be heading next. But now, two years later, I think that I can truly ask myself:
Was quitting my job worth it?
I believe that every choice in life is important as, although it will bring some pros to it, you will also have to give up on a few things. Same happened to me when I decided to take the freelancing path. I traded an active life, the joy of meeting with my co-workers in the morning and the financial stability for independence and time. But, even if my current life is pretty dull now and I usually work more than I did back then, for me, quitting my job was probably the best trade I’ve ever done so far. Here’s why:
- Every career-related success that I have is directly connected to our small business. For example, if I were to sign an important customer as an employee, his money would go to my bosses account. Now they go to mine :).
- I am financially independent and don’t rely on anyone but me to pay the salary at the end of the month. I make my own path.
- I have the liberty to make my own choices, no matter if they’re good or bad. One of the things I lacked when working as a Marketing Manager is that some of my decisions were limited by my boss’ perspective. So I couldn’t really test everything out or couldn’t apply all my ideas. Now I can do this. Of course, a bad choice costs me my own money now, but at least I can find out what works and what doesn’t.
- I can work at any hour and any pace I desire. I set my own deadlines and targets. And when I reach my targets, the results are more fulfilling as they’re directly connected to my business (point 1).
- If I had a long night, I can get up whenever I want in the morning, if there are no pressing matters, of course.
- I can grow at my own pace and am limited by nothing else but my vision and motivation.
And the list can go on as there are so many things that I can add to it. Some time ago, I read a quote saying something like: “The decisions you fear most are usually the most important in your life”. I don’t really remember who wrote it but I can relate to it 100%. I did fear of quitting my job. But now, looking back to everything that happened in the past two years, all of the things I feared that night happen were just a creation of my imagination, and it was much simpler than I could have ever hoped. Now, I don’t want this to be a motivational post about why you should quit your job now. I said it, and I’ll repeat it whenever I get the chance – freelancing isn’t for everyone. The mere purpose of this article is to give you some insight on how quitting my job opened new doors and opportunities and helped me grow in a way I couldn’t have if I were to remain an employee.