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Ma12: Quitting Your Day Job Margin by Retraice1
On desire, fear and resources.
Air date: Thursday, 5th Nov. 2020, 11 : 25 AM Pacific/US.
Video experiment We’re doing live video today.
Quitting your job It’s different for everybody.
Our story For years, one of us felt like we needed to do something drastic, i.e. actually quit to start the business.
The essential problem Are you ready and willing? It comes down to desire and fear.
Acid and fire There’s something burning inside entrepreneurs. It’s acidic if it sits untended; it’s combustible if something is done.
What it comes down to Perhaps it should be a matter of resources, calculations and planning. But in practice, it’s about the burning.
Luck and escape If you’re fleeing or chasing something, instead of rationally considering things, you’ll need some luck after you quit, because things will go wrong. On escape, see Benson.2
More of our story It has taken much longer to get to this point than we predicted, and it’s been an excruciating wait.
Getting out there To figure out how to do something worth doing, you have to go out and work. Too early, or too late, and you’ll fail.
You’re never ready How ‘ready’ do you have to be? It depends. Experiment if you can.
Your estimations of time, money, people, energy, etc. is crucial. You should keep a huge margin of safety if you can.3 But most of us can’t.
Entrepreneurs are risk-takers You’re probably not the ultra-prudent type. That’s not how entrepreneurs are. The ultimate risk is the lost years of your life.
References Benson, A. C. (1916). Escape, and Other Essays. Echo Library. ISBN: 978-1847029010. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-1847029010
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-1847029010
https://lccn.loc.gov/15019279
Graham, B. (1973). The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel. Harper Business, 4th revised ed. Fourth edition 1973; this edition, with material from Jason Zweig, 2006. ISBN: 978-0060555665. Searches:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0060555665
https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0060555665
https://lccn.loc.gov/2003047894
1https://www.retraice.com/margin
2Benson (1916).
3Graham (1973) chpt. 20.