Quitting Your 9–5 to Chase Your Passion is Not a Good Idea, and This is Why
A job is a work performed for your employer who, in exchange, gives you a salary. A vocation is a passion that you feel while doing something, regardless of whether you get paid. Life would be too simple if work and vocation were the same.
The vocation is for those who say, “I wish I spent more time at the office,” at their deathbeds.
When someone decides to set up a business, it’s because they chose to deal with their calling, and not with their job. As a vocation fills a person with fear and emotions, it is easy to make a common mistake. For example, you can quit your job too soon.
According to research conducted by Raffiee and Feng, entrepreneurs who kept their day time jobs were 33 percent less likely to fail than those who quit. Adam Grant talks about is in his best-seller Originals.
Founders of many well-known companies have been quite cautious before quitting their day time jobs. The cynic would say that they did not believe in themselves and their businesses. But they were just rational.
Phil Knight from Nike, Steve Wozniak from Apple, Larry Page and Sergey Brin from Google, and Pierre Omidyar from eBay, kept their job after setting up their businesses.
Entrepreneurs are not the only ones who calculated when to quit. The same is with the creative industry.
Stephen King, Ava DuVernay, Brian May, and John Legend stayed at work until they feel secure to attend the creative industry fully. T. S. Eliot worked in a publishing company and wrote poetry in his free time.
I know what you’re thinking.
When should I deal with my vocation when I spend most of my days at work? That is the essential question. Work on your passion in the evenings and weekends. This is the only answer.
It also means that you’re not spending your free time having coffee with your friends or watching your favorite TV series. And not only that. You can’t really exercise, and you’re probably starting to drinking more coffee and eating irregularly.
The price of leaving work and starting to do what you love is high but necessary. If you are not ready to give up comfort, then it is better not to try. And that’s a great initial test.
You may realize that you would rather binge Friends: 20 Years Later than write, draw or program apps. And don’t feel guilty about it. Be thankful that you figured out in time what you want to do.
