Badass Is The New Black (Season 4) Episode #5- When To Quit Your Job To Pursue Your Side Hustle
Mar 16, 2022
Should you keep your stable corporate job in order to pay the bills even if you hate it or should you take the risk and pursue your side hustle because it fills you up? Today we explore both sides of this issue that so many face in their life. How do you know when it's time to make that jump? Will you live with regret if you don't?
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When To Quit Your Job To Pursue Your Side Hustle
My Father’s Entrepreneurial Journey
So I'm going to start off with a little story about my dad and his business, his entrepreneurial journey, or lack thereof, because we're talking about should you leave your nine to five? When should you leave your nine to five? So I want to share this story.
When I was a kid, my dad had a soap business and he made soap. I remember everybody loved his soap in the community. Even after he stopped doing the soap business, people would continue to ask him to make soap and he would make small batches for our family and for close friends and family.
But before he stopped, he was building his business and he had a financial partner that was helping him out in the business. He got to this point where he had to make this critical decision about his business. Should I continue to pursue this business and take it to the next level? Or should I keep doing my nine to five, which at the time was as a pharmacist, that's what he did his entire life.
He was really at a crossroads and I didn’t know this when I was a young child. I don't know the internal things that were going on, why he ended up making his decisions, but he made this decision to stop the business and not pursue it. I don't know if it was confidence issues, if he felt like maybe he just couldn't do it. He was an entrepreneur and an inventor at heart so I know he probably really wanted to do it, but he probably felt like he had these obligations.
I remember he did feel like he had an obligation to support his family. He was the sole breadwinner, if you will, of the family. A lot was resting on his shoulders and maybe that's what you feel like as you're trying to make this decision, maybe you're bringing in a huge financial piece to the family.
Unfortunately I can't ask my dad about it anymore because he passed away but from the story that my mom shares he had decided to not pursue the soap business. He said let's just put it up on the altar and see what God has to say about it. Not too shortly afterwards the garage where he had his soap business burned down. I think he took that as a sign.
So he didn't continue to pursue that business. He did his nine to five or six to six, whatever it ended up being in the pharmacy, and he was miserable doing it for 40 plus years. I think he had a lot of regrets about not pursuing his entrepreneurial journey in this soap business, his homesteading business that he had. I remember he would raise bees and we had honey and we'd sell honey and things like that.
The Big Question
So one of the big questions that I get asked a lot is should I quit my nine to five to pursue my entrepreneurial journey? Or maybe WHEN should you leave your nine to five?
I want to turn that around and ask you, if you don't pursue your side business that you're doing and you stay working your nine to five, how will you feel in 20 years or in 40 years? Maybe you're on a good path. You're going to get a promotion or you're going to get a bonus,
or maybe you're going to end up leaving companies and taking a higher position, but it's going to be doing what you're doing. How are you going to feel in 20 years? If you're like my dad and you decide to keep doing your day job will you have regrets? Will you constantly wonder?
If the answer is yes, I feel like I'm going to have regrets, you've already answered your own question. Don't base your answer on if it's hard or not. Do you want this? Does it feel aligned with you? Are you going to have regrets?
My Decision To Quit My Job
My dad's story definitely has been an inspiration to me to make that leap of faith leaving behind a job that I spent a lot of money on education. I spent a lot of time studying. Nursing School is not easy. I spent a lot of time and money studying there. I do know and understand that there's kind of this attachment like, oh my gosh, I went to school for that. I spent all this time and money. Am I really gonna leave it?
Maybe you're trying to figure out when is that time?
I remember when I was in my nursing job and I would come home from a long shift and I'd be lying in bed and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I'm so exhausted. Just looking up at the ceiling. I'm like, is this what my life is going to be for the rest of my life? I wanted more income. I wanted more time and freedom.
It wasn't fulfilling me. I was good at it. I was really good at it, but it just wasn't fulfilling me. I didn't just completely jump into entrepreneurship full-time. I basically worked until I replaced my income that I was bringing in as my nursing job.
I had explored many different things and then got into network marketing and kind of jumped in. I said I wouldn't do the business, then realized how it works, what it is and was loving the products. I knew this was going to be it. So that's what I was doing when I decided to leave my job as a nurse.
I remember we had decided to move to Atlanta and I was faced with having to find a new nursing job and I was so stressed out at the prospect of this, it was just gut wrenching for me. I knew I couldn’t do that so having that kind of motivator where there is no Plan B, to push you to grow can be really powerful.
Do I think you should just up and quit your day job, pursue your own business without thinking through it? No. I think you need to make a calculated decision. You might not have the financial support of a partner but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for you. I’ve known people who didn’t wait until they replaced their income before chasing their side hustle. For them, it was so important to do what they loved that they took the risk sooner.
Are you struggling with the limiting belief that the only way to provide for your family and be responsible is to have a corporate job? Even if it means doing something you hate, working long hours and not chasing your passion? Consider that.
Brad's Story
My friend Brad Bizjack did things very differently than what I did. He did the much riskier route. He was actually fired from his job. Instead of going back and trying to pursue that, he decided not to. His wife is not a risk taker at all. She thought this was crazy and didn’t want him to do this at all. But at the end of the day she supported his dreams.
You might not be in that situation where your partner is super supportive of you with this dream. Thankfully he did have that support so he decided to pursue something else. He didn’t make very much at first, but after a year it ended up really taking off. Now he is super successful and he has helped thousands of people with their mindset.
Another thing that helped me make the decision to leave my nine to five job was wanting to set a good example for my children. I’m not saying that if you keep your nine to five that you are setting a good example for your kids, maybe you are teaching them a really good work ethic. But I wanted to show my kids that they could pursue their dreams. That was important to me. To teach them that if they were dedicated and hard working that you can make those dreams a reality.
One Reason You should NOT Leave Your Day Job
One reason I think that is not a good one for leaving your job is because you don’t think you’re good enough the way you are. If you think you need to succeed at your side hustle in order to be enough, that is not a good reason to do it. You need to know you are enough right now. Otherwise no amount of success will ever be enough for you. You’ll always feel like you need to do more in order to prove you are enough. This is why doing mindset work or working with a coach can be really beneficial.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What is holding you back from pursuing your passion full time? Where are you on this journey?
You might be listening and you have a nine to five job that you love and it fulfills you and that is awesome. But if you feel like you are going to look back on your life with regrets, if you want more time, more freedom, and more fulfillment from you work, then maybe it’s time to ask yourself some of these questions. Can you make a plan for building up your side hustle in order to take that leap of faith? Or maybe you are in a position to do that right now and you just need that extra push or motivation to make it happen?
Whatever it is, I hope you found this encouraging and are considering what your next move should be.
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