Quitting isn’t as easy as it sounds. It can be really scary. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of quitting my current business/job (self employed) to pursue some undefined ideas and/or business ventures which I can actually be passionate about. Some days are worse than others and yesterday was one of those days. I woke up and could not force myself to do any of the things that I “should†be doing in order to run my business. Just two weeks ago I’d managed to convince myself that I can bite the bullet and just work through it until I manage to mold the company into a scalable prototype which does not need me to run. However, this sinking feeling of dread is something I can only shake for a couple of days at a time. I don’t think I have what it takes to get through this dip and I am convinced that would be better off if I just quit and went a different direction.
After I escaped (ducked) the few job responsibilities I could handle under these circumstances I drove around aimlessly for a little while hugging my steering wheel closely. I happened to land in one of my favorite spots when I need to escape the chaos around me, Borders. I walked in and noticed a section of local books off to the right corner of the store. I browsed a few of the titles to see if anything jumped out at me. I was almost expecting to see more Hurricane Katrina related titles. I was a little surprised to see that C-Murder had written a novel. C-Murder is a published author and I’m in my 15th year of being the “writer who doesn’t write.†Of course I have several strategic reasons for not writing the best of which to not give up my clever descriptive moniker. The Writer Who Doesn’t Write. WWDW. I could see it on the NY Times Bestseller’s list now, “How to Write a Bestseller Without Writing.†Except that sounds too much like actually writing. Outsource it.
I walked upstairs to the Business section to see if anything popped out there. Nothing really, they all sound the same. Of course I was only interested in books that might help this gut wrenching feeling urging me to abandon ship before it sinks from the hole I shot in it yesterday. Ah, there’s a book that can help. Seth Godin’s – The Dip. Of course I’m stuck in the cul de sac that he describes and my only alternative is this big cliff just ahead. It’s hard to describe these feelings without sounding like I’m completely unhappy with life which would kind of make me ungrateful.
I don’t have a problem with life, per se, just my current career choice. It’s not really a career choice because I didn’t choose my career it chose me. And that’s the problem. What happens when your Plan B turns into your Plan A? Get a better Plan A.
There are certainly times when quitting is necessary and I’ve reached a point (again) that I have to face my fears, challenge my fears and overcome them. My nerves are starting to get bad so I’ll just leave you with a couple of related articles to check out:
