I’ve read so many motivational blogs and books that encourage you to quit your job and be everything you think you can be. Here are some examples of these works:
- John Acuff’s Quitter Conference: http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/events/
- Four Hour Work Week: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/
Personally I’ve found a lot of the ideas in the 4HWW fantastic and original (dreamline and the dreamline worksheet) but some of them don’t work if you already live in a low cost economy like India and one is just wrong. This is when Tim Ferriss says that everyone hates their job. I don’t.
Here are the reasons I stay at my job:
- I can significantly impact the life of millions of users of my product as they use my product 8hrs a day or more. I can’t have that scope in my own small company
- I can compete globally on a level playing field with the best in the industry yet work out of India
- I can be very creative and work with a very capable team. I may never be able to build this in my company
- I make a great living without any of the risks that come with starting a business or owning an established business
But I want to temper this enthusiasm too. Here are the issues I wrestle with when I think about quitting:
- I’m not building a personal legacy yet. This blog is my first attempt at building a presence independent of my employer
- I have a lot of support in a large company, will I be able to succeed on my own? Am I becoming too soft working for a large company, is the challenge gone?
- I dont think the company can give me the level of ownership I want in the long run. This is mostly because of structural issues. So maybe I should quit
As you can see I keep wrestling with this question. And I dont have the answer right now. Perhaps I feel that time to quit is not now and that I will intuitively know when it is time to pursue something new. I’m coming up on 10 years at the same company now. I’ve been lucky to play different roles in this company every 3 years and that made these 10 years really wonderful.