I’d love to hear your feedback and comments on this. Here’s the background info for those of you who may not have been hanging around for the last 8 months.
I graduated college in May. I had my full time job lined up before Thanksgiving 2007. This gave me the chance to coast through my final semester of college, enjoy my time, and get my work done instead of looking for a job. However, I think this also deterred me from going full force at my businesses and different opportunities, because I knew I was safe and had something lined up that was a sure bet to start on June 16th.
June 16th rolled around and I started my first day of my full time career after college and in “the real world”. I’ve been working since and enjoying it. Seriously, I like my job, love the company, love the people. But I’m bored. I don’t have a lot of interaction with people (I’m on the phone occasionally or meeting with program teams, but that’s it). Plus there is this annoying noise that comes from the vents when the heat turns on – almost sounds like a fire alarm going off. I will note that come the new year I will be switching departments. But anyway….
I’ve always been the type of person that did not want to have a full time job or work for anyone else. However, my situation changed in January. I proposed to my girlfriend of almost 4 years. All of the sudden, a lot more responsibility came around. I had to start worrying about her and us in the future, not just me. The full time job was that safety net – you know the deal – monthly paycheck, full benefits, vacation time, flexible work schedule, the whole 9 yards. So the net that the job offers of knowing that there won’t be issues paying rent, putting food on the table, and being prepared for what life throws at us is greater than a need to work for myself right now.
Yet, more and more lately, as I hear, read, listen to, and see people talk about hustling, breaking out, quiting the rat race, launching your own business, etc it gets that fire within me burning at full force again and makes me want to quit tomorrow. Yet I can’t. I’m not in a position to do so. The business is not in a position to support that. My goal when I started working full time was to be out within 3 years. I think I’m changing that to be out in August. It is a crazy goal to set. But that gives me literally 9 months to bust my ass, make moves, and do a shit ton of business. If that can happen, I can leave this full time job and grow the businesses to be completely successful and supportive. Like I said, I change departments and jobs after the first of the year, so this could all completely change and I may wind up staying the 3 years – you never know.
However, I will tell you that I will be out of here and supporting myself and my family through my businesses soon. It just depends on your definition of soon I suppose.
For now, I’ll continue to hustle as I can, grow as much as possible, and try to land the freaking plane as often as possible.
I’d love to hear comments, support, suggestions, thoughts, ideas, anything from you all, my loyal readers!
Chris,
Entrepreneurism is a drum beat that those who are born with it can’t ignore, regardless of circumstances. That said, its wise to cool things down as situations change. If I haven’t said so already, I wish you and your wonderful fiancee a wonderful life together.
Now, I hear all that stuff about job stability, but I’ve found that nothing is really stable. We like to buy into that because it makes us feel good, but I’ve got several friends who are facing pink slips due to layoffs and shortcutting.
I have the ability to fly at the seat of my pants, because I structured my life that way. Right now, you need to quietly build your internet empire, work the day job, and try to make offline connections that might be able to take a bite out of the boredom you feel.
You know this already, but I’m here for you anytime, everytime. I want nothing more than to see you succeed, so lets talk about how we can start 2009 right, yes?
Work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isa
It’s been a while!!
Reading this post, I’m surprised at how similar our circumstances are.
Like you, I had a job waiting for me a full semester before my graduation on May of 2007. I had just started the Greek Store in the summer of 2006 but knew that I needed a more stable income for the future. I also had a long time Girlfriend that I had considered marrying.
So like you, I took the day to day job.
But the kink in my system is that my relationship ended about 6 months after graduation. We just grew apart.
Now I am contemplating whether or not to return to my venture, or start others. The challenge is the current state of the economy and it is the reason for my reluctance to leave my current position. Granted I absolutely love my job… but I admit that there is a thrill I get from building something from nothing.
So for me, until the next opportunity presents itself (the right place and time), I will continue building my nest egg with a stable income (+heath insurance, which is expensive as an entrepreneur, haha)
Regardless, we are still relatively very young. And rather than thinking in terms of weeks or months… I’ve learned to think in terms of years. I am confident that an appealing opportunity will present itself someday 🙂
I can definitely relate to you on this one. My rat race was retail right out of college. For almost 8 years I was stuck in it because of all the responsibilities. I finally couldn’t take it–just couldn’t do another holiday season there. So I broke out and am trying to start my own thing. It’s stressful as all hell and I may not make it, but hey, you have to try right? Definitely miss the interacting with people. Although my cat is great company
Rich Dad Poor Dad does a great job explaining this “Rat Race” and some ways (concepts) to break out of the race to live independantly as an entrepreneur. It will be incredibly tough, but in the long run, it’s worth it. Learn the principles when you’re young, apply them as you grow, and enjoy the hard work later.
But yes, I joined the typical 9-5 job, but every night I go home and work on my business for a little bit. I stopped watching TV (or at least DVR it for later) which has given me much more free time to focus on the things that have a real return on my time.