Everything that has a beginning has an end, including your job. That is not news. The challenge for many is how to know when to quit when you have decided on early retirement to go pursue your dreams. If they had their way, they would hang their boots and move on with their lives, but they are trapped between their dream and their job.
In this situation, nobody wins. Firstly, they are not happy. Coming to work is a drag. They dread Mondays and look forward to Fridays, public holidays, vacations, and strikes when they will be let out of jail temporarily. For many, only their physical body comes to work. Their spirit and soul have moved on. They often daydream on the job. Consequently, they are not engaged with the task at hand. They are not enthusiastic about their jobs and hence cannot put in their best. Performance improvement sounds like Latin to them.
When they are sent on training, they show up as prisoners. They don’t see what is in it for them except a welcome opportunity to be away from the office. Many show up to sign the attendance register and then vanish into the thin air, only to show up during the closing ceremonies for the group pictures and their attendance certificate. Back at work, there is no sign that they went for training. They suffer from low morale, drag their teams down and struggle to just avoid being sacked by the next performance appraisal cycle.
Secondly, they are sitting on someone else’s job. The job they are murmuring and complaining about is the answer to someone else’s prayer. Rather than move on and free up that space for the younger ones coming behind, they stay put because they are afraid of survival outside the nest they have become used to.
Lastly, entrepreneurs are meant to create jobs. They carry within them dreams that will give birth to businesses that create jobs and add value to society. When entrepreneurs fail to launch out due to fear, they deny others and the economy the jobs they would have created. Some sit on their dreams while others start part-time but are afraid to go full-time and take it to the next level.
So in the final analysis, we have entrepreneurs sitting on jobs meant for employees rather than creating the jobs they were meant to create. I often wonder how the job market would look like if every entrepreneur took his place and started creating jobs rather than hiding under a job in the name of financial security. There will be more than enough jobs for job seekers.
Why do we hold unto jobs when the spirit is no longer willing? What stops folks from transitioning from their day jobs to following their dreams? It is the twin forces of fear and greed. Fear comes in when you have not achieved financial independence while greed kicks in when you have, but still hold on for one more promotion, salary increase, one more bonus, one more project to execute, etc.
Fear of the real world outside
If you have been working for a while with your salary being your only source of income, chances are you have become a salary addict. The mere thought of life without a salary sends a chill down your spine. It is unthinkable. Like a domesticated lion, you believe you can no longer hunt in the wild. This is a natural reaction. The solution is achieving financial independence whereby you grow your passive income to exceed your cost of living. I have dwelled extensively on this in previous articles.
You can make things easier for yourself by reducing your cost of living so that you achieve financial independence faster. You shoot yourself in the foot when you increase your recurrent expenditure whenever your income goes up. You are raising the bar on yourself rather than increasing your savings and investment to speed up your progress.
Many people cannot retire early because of their children’s school fees. They sent their children to schools they cannot afford to pay unless from their salary. Going to that school is not by force, but a choice they made. The consequence of that choice is that they cannot leave that job until their children finish that school. No one put a gun to their heads to send their child to that school. There is always the choice to go to a more affordable school.
When you attain financial independence, you can do without your salary. The fear may still be there, but not as much as if you have no safety net at all. One way to manage that fear is to fund your living expenses with your passive income while still in paid employment (saving your salary to acquire assets). That way, you are used to living without your salary and when it eventually ceases; your life goes on without a blink.
What is enough?
If you have a nice paying job, it can be hard to decide where to draw the line and call it a day. You may keep pushing the goalpost backward. Deciding when enough is enough can be tough as greed comes into play. When you look at the financial reward that comes with further delay – the next promotion, pay raises, bonuses, personal projects, etc, there is a tendency to rewrite your financial goals and change your exit parameters. It takes guts (chutzpah) to pull the plug and move on.
Leaving with more money makes you feel more secure no doubt. However, life is not all about money. The longer you hang on, the more you prolong your misery. There is the issue of the toll on your health. You are not getting younger. The earlier you go for your dreams, the better your chances of achieving them rather than waiting till you are old and spent. Your children are growing up and the window of opportunity for spending time with them is gradually closing.
The moment they leave home, you cannot get those days back and the lack of relationship with them may haunt you for the rest of your days. Also, the marketplace is not static. The opportunity you saw a while back may not wait for you to get your act together. It may no longer be there when you finally say ‘I do’.
With all these factors, there is no one right answer. Some have quit too early and crash-landed while others have regretted hanging on for too long. You need to get your body, spirit, and soul in alignment. When your spirit tells you it is time to go, then it is time. After having prepared (achieved financial independence), analyzed, strategized and all that good stuff, a time comes to gather up your courage, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and jump. You only have one life to live after all.
Photo: Linkedin
