Why I quit my six-figure job in the middle of a global pandemic
I assume the first question that immediately comes to your mind is, WHY? Probably followed by — are you crazy? Both very valid questions. But before I answer, let me take a step back and tell you a little bit about who the hell I am, why I want to share my story, and how reading this blog will likely help you out with any tough decisions you’re currently facing.
I’ve been a consultant for a little over 5 years now and was working at one of the Big 4 consulting companies (until recently). Contrary to the stories you tend to hear, I thoroughly enjoyed consulting and learned a lot about business problems and processes, people management, collaboration, technology, and so much more over the last five years. I’ve also been fortunate to work on 15+ projects advising Fortune 100 companies on some of their toughest technology, strategy, and marketing problems. I started my career at this company, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the people I’ve gotten to meet across the world.
My passion has always been startups though. Even in the last five years, I’ve worked on various side hustles — including designing and selling backpacks on Amazon and helping small businesses overcome their digital marketing challenges — mainly to satisfy my hunger of trying and learning new things while making a supplemental income. While side hustling has taught me a lot about new domains, time management, and risk taking, it has also remained just that for me — a side hustle. Due to my (unconscious) fear of leaving my high paying and familiar day job, I realized I side lined my true interests, potential, and my precious time.
So, what suddenly changed?
Ever heard of loss of aversion? Yeah, I hadn’t either until recently when I read Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Turns out that a key psychological principle is that most people are likely to be influenced and motivated by getting out of pain as opposed to seeking pleasure. For example, if someone’s goal is to lose weight, they are more likely to take action on it when their doctor tells them they are borderline obese and have to get things under control, instead of being motivated to take action by watching other fit people or wanting to get a six pack.
This is exactly what happened to me in my job. My last project in consulting was high burn and quite stressful. I’ve worked weekends before and done my share of all nighters on other projects, but this time it was somehow worse due to working from home. Being remote this year has caused a lot of people’s personal and professional lives to blur and for a lot of consultants, the line is becoming increasingly hazy. I found myself in endless meetings during the day with time to get real work done only later in the evening or on the weekends. While I tried my best to set boundaries and expectations with my team, collaborating with team members across domestic and international time zones made the task quite difficult. Crazy hours in my day job coupled with applying and interviewing for other jobs (in an attempt to “escape”) AND working on my side hustle was, quite frankly, driving me insane. Stress was higher, happiness lower, time felt out of my control, and my personal relationships began to suffer.
But all of that wasn’t even the real instigator for me to make the jump (like I said, our unconscious fears run deep). The true trigger came as a result of self-reflection. Though 2020 has been one of the worst years for our global society, it has brought me (and I hope many more people) a lot of personal growth. I’ve always strived to incorporate more mindfulness into my life, such as a daily meditation practice and journaling. But like most people, I never consistently stuck to it due to the externalities of life. When we were forced to spend most of our time inside this year, I made a commitment to myself to take a more consistent look internally as well. The first thing that gradually came about due to self-reflection was greater awareness — of what I wanted, where I wanted to go, and what was holding me back. I knew starting my own business has been my dream, but I started to become more aware of why I kept treating it more like a hobby as opposed to a full-time effort. It boiled down to how I identified and saw myself, and the fear of failing and not being good enough that kept me struck in that infinite loop, without my conscious knowing (happy to get more into this at another time!).
It’s a bit difficult and sounds rather arbitrary to describe the mental switch that literally freed me, but it’s so subtle and simple that it makes me question why I was making this decision a big deal in the first place. Once I got clarity about the direction I wanted to go, it was all about the decision to take a small step in that direction that I knew was right for me at this moment. Once you know you need to get to California from Colorado, you know you would only drive west from there onwards. If you find yourself taking detours east, south, or north, then it’s time to stop and reevaluate where you’re really going. For me, that was understanding and questioning what underlying fears are causing what my mind justifies as “logical” detours at this point in my life.
The 7 steps I followed to make my “big” decision
I’m not saying go and immediately quit the job that’s making you unhappy or make any other seemingly big decision on a whim. I’m a huge proponent of calculated decision making, along with faith, trust, and surrender. If you’re feeling uncertain about something right now or if you struggle to make decisions in general like me, here are the 7 steps I’ve found to be most effective when it comes to decision making after spending countless hours introspecting, making mistakes, absorbing all kinds of self-improvement books and videos, and learning from others:
- Take the pressure off!
Is this decision really a big deal? Are you truly taking a “risk” by deciding one way or another? One of my favorite authors and entrepreneurs, Tim Ferris, defines risk as the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome. I freaking love this definition. If you think of risks in that way, very few things in life are truly risks and/or big decisions (probably only life or death-type situations). So take the pressure off yourself (and others) and start viewing whatever undesirable thought is taking up space in your mind right now in perspective. In the grand scheme of life, will this thing really matter?
2. Reflect on what you want
I recommend reflection whether you’re needing to make a decision or not. Incorporate a bit of introspection and observing your thoughts daily to gain more clarity. What do you really want? Not how or when, but what? A more powerful question to think about as a follow-up — why do you want what you want? Two of the best ways to reflect daily is 10–15 minutes of meditation (I practice Vipassana meditation — happy to write a separate post on that if anyone’s interested to learn more) and/or journaling. The journaling exercise can be anywhere from 10–30 minutes daily of just jotting down your stream of consciousness, preferably in the morning when your mind is by default in its most calm state. I was amazed by how much clarity putting my incessant thoughts down on paper can bring, especially if it’s around a particular topic I’m struggling with.
3. Analyze your fears
I don’t think I can ever not analyze as a consultant (if anything, I do it waaay too much). But it’s a very practical and necessary step required for making any kind of decision. And the best part is we are wired to do it automatically. Any decision you make in life involves a mental weighing of pros and cons, whether you are aware of it or not. But when I say analyze, I mean get specific and WRITE IT DOWN. Borrowing a highly effective fear-setting framework from Tim Ferris, make 3 columns on a piece of paper or digitally:
The beauty of this exercise is that you begin to conquer your fears when you start defining them. For me, seeing the various options I have listed out and critically analyzing them made the fears I had much less daunting. Seeing things in this perspective made me realize that the worst-case scenario my mind was spinning over wasn’t even that bad and that remaining in status quo would have actually caused me more pain and unhappiness.
4. Consider the benefits
Once you’ve defined and prepared for what could go wrong, it’s time to shift gears to optimism. The second part of this exercise is to list positive benefits of even an attempt, or partial success of making the decision — what could go right? In my case, the benefits included the potential to earn more per month than I was in my job, the chance to apply the skills I’ve learned to make a greater impact in the world, and never having to wonder ‘what if’. Uncovering that my fears were not warranted (although you might discover yours are and that is completely ok) along with the realization that I stand to gain a LOT more monetary benefits and peace of mind by quitting my job, the decision became quite easy.
5. Make the decision that’s right for you, right now
Here’s where you take action, but only after completing the steps above. Often, you’ll find that this step comes as a natural byproduct of the analysis and you’ll be much more confident in the action you take. One more tip — there’s no need to think this decision is absolute. Going back to taking the pressure off and equipping yourself with repairable actions you can take to get back to where you are will help you realize that very few decisions in life are truly irreversible. So be at ease that you are making the choice that’s right for you, right now. Had I been in a different phase of life, quitting my job might not have been the most feasible decision then and there is nothing wrong with that either.
6. Don’t look back because everything always works out eventually
I used to look back on decisions I’ve made and regret or contemplate them quite a bit to the point where it was a habit, but luckily, I realized how toxic it was. Never look back because it brings you no gain and it’s one of the quickest ways to feel helpless. One mantra that’s helped me not look back is — everything always works out in the long run (and usually better than you could have imagined). And for things out of your control, remember that everything happens for a reason. Jay Shetty recently discussed this in his podcast with Gabby Bernstein that the most successful people tended to have the belief that everything happens for a reason.
7. Keep all your doors open and see which ones stay open
Again, no decision needs to be absolute. There is no reason to knock opportunity if it comes your way, because you never know where it could lead. Contrary to advice out there that says be laser focused on your goals and do not divert into anything else, I believe that you should be open to all possibilities while continuing to work on your goals. If you’re intentional in your actions, you will attract people, events, and situations that could open doors you didn’t know existed and might even influence and inspire new goals. I’m keeping my doors open by applying to jobs in startups where the mission and vision of the company excites me, while continuing to work on my own. I’m more intentional in where I want to go now so I’ve narrowed my job search compared to before and I’m excited to see where this path leads.
If you’re wondering how voluntary unemployment is going…
So what inspired this blog post and the many more I want to write? Well since quitting last month, I’ve definitely gained my time back and I’m starting to use it to do things I really enjoy and have often put on the back burner — working on new startup ideas, taking online courses in subjects I’m passionate about such as psychology and personal finance, reading entrepreneurship and self-improvement books, journaling, continuing to apply for jobs in startups (like I said, I’m all for keeping all doors open!), and contributing to this world in ways that bring me joy and can help someone else out (like writing this post).
Instead of trading my time for money doing something that I don’t truly enjoy, I have started investing my time in what I want do and aligning the actions I’m taking with where I want to go and grow. I have found that simply choosing to spend my time a bit more wisely than having it controlled by other people like it was before has allowed me to embody the abundant and free state of mind that I always wanted to achieve. And with this new mindset, I’m already feeling richer, gaining inspiration more frequently, and excited to finally be on a path that aligns with my goals. All it took was a simple, subtle mental shift.
If this article has helped you in any way or if you’d be interested in learning more about my experiences in consulting and/or interviewing in the tech world, please let me know. I’m on a mission to help others navigate their time well and share what I’ve learned in my corporate and startup career. Here’s what you can expect to read next from me — lessons learned from interviewing with over 20 tech companies during the pandemic, the biggest problems I helped Fortune 100 companies solve as a consultant, how to ace consulting interviews with the Big 4, how to start a successful side hustle, the best resources, habits, and beliefs that are contributing immensely to my self-improvement journey, the do’s and don’ts of B2B and B2C social media marketing, and much more!
