This is a question I’ve frequently received and people always expect me to say yes since I am so pro-entrepreneurship.
The problem is that people are too ideological and do not understand the concept of taking calculated risks. They think it’s either 100% focus on their job or quitting and doing something.
The practical and realistic answer is you need to work your job and build your business at the same time. Once your business is making enough for you to sustain yourself, you should *bleed out* from your job. This is not the same as quitting.
Let me explain in detail.
Let’s say you make $5k a month from your job (after taxes) at the moment.
Step 1: Pick a business, a name, and get started
You start building any kind of online business like an X account, copywriting, or web design.
You pick a nice name of your new venture and go for it.
Step 2: You GRIND until you’re making more from your business than your job
It will take you 6 months to 2 years to get to 5k a month, depending on how hard you work, your skill level, and the luck factor (some people are loved by the social media algorithms, some find a client in 1 week, some take 2 months to get their first paying customer, etc).
Let’s say you work a standard 9 to 5. This means you’re waking up at 7, getting to work at 9, and finishing work at 5, and getting home by 6.
For the next 6 months to 2 years till you “beat your wage with business” you need to live and work like a donkey from 6 to 12. This will function like your second job.
The numbers might vary (it could be 7 to 1 or 8 to 11 or whatever time you have – no excuses) but the point is the same – you have to work grueling hours until you set yourself up.
This is the price you must pay for FREEDOM.
If you were wasting time fucking around, gossiping and 40 minute “snacks” break at work, you need to secretly use that time on your business. Just make sure you don’t tell your co-workers about it because your co-workers are not your friends.
You WILL at some point make more money from your business than your job. Especially if you’ve picked from the tried and tested business models I’ve listed above.
This is simply reality because jobs don’t pay that much. You only get a small fraction of your productivity while in business, you get all of it. Besides, with a side business, you don’t even have to pay taxes for a long long time because of write offs.
Step 3: You don’t quit, you BLEED OUT
Yep, you heard that right.
You don’t quit your job. You just focus more on your business and perform worse and worse at your job.
What this actually looks like is something like this:
- You are initially in the top 20% of performers at your job.
- You drop performance a little, slow down deliveries, and are now performing at the level of the average employee. For example, if something is going to take you 4 days to do, you say it’ll take you 6 and buy yourself time. You use the time you’re saving to work on your business while at your job.
- As your business grows and demands your attention, you drop your performance even further. You could now be in the bottom 20% of the employees. You keep collecting that salary though, even though you might not get promoted.
- Sooner or later you will be put on a performance improvement plan at work. You toe the line and drag the process as long as possible while you keep collecting the paycheck. Being good at office politics and optics management helps.
- You are eventually laid off. Layoffs happen from time to time in big companies and since you are a poor performer, you are eventually let go. You get paid a severance.
So instead of just quitting, you collect your paycheck for a few more years and also get a severance payout.
If you could drag out your $5k a month job for 2-3 years like this, that will be about an additional $200-250k in your pocket depending on the size of the severance cheque.
You actually get paid instead of having to burn though your savings.
Avoid Reckless Behavior
The type of person who quits before they’re even making money from their business is the type of person who fails at business.
Why?
Because they are largely people who are motivated by emotions, not discipline. They get these emotional pumps and dumps where they make the choice of quitting when they’re emotionally pumped and then don’t do the work of building a business later.
How much time does it even take to build a business on the side? A few hours at best.
You are not going to need 10 hours a day on a new business. It takes a long time for a business to grow to the point that it requires so much time.
Most businesses can be brought to ramen profitability with just 2-4 hours a day.
Don’t be reckless and stupid. The “quit my job to pursue a business” sounds good as a story but is not a smart real life decision.
In real life, you need to devote a few hours to your business and use your job to get money to fund it. Slowly bleed out the job once you are making bank from the business.
The last thing you want is to be jobless and to have failed at business (there is always a possibility that you have to try again – just how life works).
You gotta be patient and put in the first 2-3 years. You cannot just quit your job and be rich in 3 months. You cannot skip ahead to being a successful businessman.
The time in the trenches has to be done. There is no way around it. This is why I always tell young men – the earlier you start, the easier it is.
– Harsh Strongman
P.S. Grab a copy of Live Intentionally to help you push though the first 90 days (easily the most challenging period).
