Everything You’ve Been Told About Quitting Is Wrong
You can quit and find success
Forget everything you were told about quitting. Have you ever quit a job and found something new and more rewarding?
Have you walked away from a toxic relationship and found yourself relieved as if a huge weight has been lifted off your chest?
While letting go of something that does not serve you anymore makes sense, why has quitting garnered so much negative connotation? Why is it consistently associated with failure?
Why do you have to suffer the feeling of frustration and guilt just because you have to let go of something that did not work for you at one point in your life, be it a career, business or relationship?
Life Is Not A Win/Lose Competition
We all know that in competitive sports someone wins and another loses. You have to strive and train hard enough to win against your opponents.
It’s likely by now that somewhere in your psyche you have been made to feel that this whole existence is somewhat like a competitive race to the finish line.
You get one chance to win. You need to train hard everyday and bring the gold medal home. Because of this way of thinking, you automatically associate quitting with failure. You are made to feel like you did not try hard enough and you gave up halfway through the imaginary race.
It’s Smart To Avoid Hardship When It’s Not Necessary For Success
In contrast, I have always favoured getting things done effortlessly. I started a few businesses that were profitable.
I gave them all to other people to manage under a contract so that I did not have to bother with the nitty gritty details of running the business on a day-to-day basis. I considered that to be hard, and not as effortless as desired.
These businesses paid me handsomely each month and gave me more free time to do whatever I wanted to do.
In the last 15 years I have hardly worked because I have always figured out a way to build an income pipeline.
Life is not a competitive sport and you do not need to run for a reward. You don’t need to work extremely hard. There is no finish line. You live this life for yourself.
You are unique and are the only person in existence in the whole world with your specific thumbprint. You can walk away from a career, relationship or business opportunity because it was not what you wanted or you didn’t feel right about it. You have that freedom.
Quitting Does Not Mean You Have Failed
My daughter was selected to be groomed by one of the big 5 consultancies and join their graduate program.
After a few weeks of work she came to ask my opinion.
“I can’t take this anymore. I am thinking of quitting. They have moved me into a department which I abhor. They shifted me there because they needed more help. I told them that I hated the routine job and it’s killing my spirit. They responded by telling me that I don’t have a choice but to work in that department. It’s a dream job for many. If I quit, I feel that I have failed,” she said.
Here’s how I responded. “Quitting is not failing. Don’t let anyone make you feel that way. Imagine being stuck in this job for the rest of your life just because your idea of quitting is equivalent to failure. Life is too short. You should do things that make you happy, even if they are less rewarding monetarily”.
She tendered her resignation the next day. Everyone, including her big bosses whom she has never met, called her and tried to persuade her to stay.
While she appreciated their attempt to offer her other options, she realised it’s not the work culture she wanted to be in. She joined another company which suited her preference for a cooler work culture.
A month later, this new company promoted her and gave her an unbelievable pay raise.
Steve Jobs quit college to embrace entrepreneurship and gave us Apple.
Mark Cuban quit his jobs numerous times before finding something he was good at and made his fortune.
Gaur Gopal Das, an engineer at Hewlett Packard, quit his lucrative job to become a spiritual monk and a life coach.
A woman I knew quit her job to become a full-time mom because she wanted to see her child grow up. It had taken her years to conceive and she wanted to witness every childhood moment. Siddharta Gautama quit his throne to become Buddha.
“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
3 Takeaways
● You can quit your career, end a relationship, or move to a different country to allow more space for something new and better to come into your life.
● Life is not a competitive sport. You only compete with yourself to become better.
● You can let go of your fear of quitting and find something you enjoy and feels incredibly rewarding to you.
Letting go of things that do not serve you now is power, not failure.
