Stop. You Don’t Need to Quit Your Job Right Now.

It is okay not to be “that” guy.

Listen, I know. I know you just heard Gary Vaynerchuk espouse to you, while wearing a very tight t-shirt, that you gotta get out there and “crush it!”

And Tony Robbins has you walking across hot coals.

And Tai Lopez wants you to come join him while he reads books while riding around in a Lamborghini.

And Tim Ferriss’ podcast has you wearing an oddly-shaped beanie while you step into a sensory deprivation tank.

Yet, gahhh, you aren’t that person.

You want to “go all in on yourself.” You want to “start grinding!” And yet…you just aren’t that comfortable with the idea of tearing off your tie in your bosses office and rolling out of the building on a hoverboard as a crowd of faceless office workers celebrates your hover to entrepreneurial success.

Because, the truth is, you like your job. Your boss is nice. You are learning new stuff. You like the guy who sits next to you in the office who exclusively wears stained shirts with unicorn puns on them.

And I am simply here to tell you: it’s okay.

If you have a passion you think you might like to turn into a full-time job but you are a bit too conservative to take the entrepreneurial dive, don’t worry. You have options. There are a bunch of different ways to approach your creative passions without going “all in.”

Make Your Passion Project a Side-Hustle

If you are willing to put in the work and make the sacrifices, there are plenty of working hours around a 9–5 to dedicate to a passion project. Whether mornings before work or evenings after (or both), there is plenty of time left in the day to get a business off the ground.

Not only is it possible to build a side-hustle while working a full-time job, keeping your day job is a great financial benefit for your side-hustle. Your day job takes the financial burden off your passion-project, giving you infinite runway to build your business without the angst of watching a slowly diminishing bank account.

I am no entrepreneurial wizard, but time, funds and the chance to work out of passion sounds like a winning combination to me.

Your Job is a Critical Learning Opportunity

Your day job can serve as an amazing place to test out ideas in the real world, make industry connections, and witness real-world successes and failures firsthand. Spending time seeing how the companies in your industry approach different challenges allows you to see the inner workings of your industry firsthand, invaluable experience for when you finally strike out on your own.

Out of college, you can easily work for a few years and still have plenty of time to strike out on your own before your late 20s. And if you start an entrepreneurial venture after a few years at a successful company, you will enjoy advantages like having industry connections, credibility, experience and confidence. Those are big advantages you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Enjoy Your Passion Project with Financial Security

You love your passion project, but you worry that even if you could monetize it, you may not want to. Your passion project gives you pleasure, it helps clear your mind of worries, it is a way to escape the world. And if all of that were lost by turning it into a revenue stream, most of the reasons that make it worthwhile in the first place would be removed.

Your day job, then, plays an important role in your passion-project: taking the pressure off the need to monetize your hobby and allowing you to truly enjoy it as a pleasurable escape.

And that makes your day job as important to your passion project as the project itself.

Likely, the role that your passion projects play in your life will change over time. Some projects are done just because they are fun, some you pursue more intensely because you sense there might be a business in it, and others will actually help you advance your day job. Any and all of those are great reasons to pursue your passions outside of work-work.

My only caution is that, with so many voices (many pushing the entrepreneurial spirit without actually embodying it themselves), it can be tempting to feel that you have to be a bootstrapping entrepreneur to “truly” be successful. And that is horse-pocky. You don’t need to give up security to pursue a passion. In the amount of time most people spend on Netflix each week, you could start a substantial venture.

Don’t quit a job just to earn the social cache that seems to come with being an “entrepreneur.” Approach your passion your way, do so smartly, and you are much likelier to be happy with where you end up.

Got a hankering for more? You can read more of my posts on Letters to a Young Professional, you can check out my blog 12HourDifference.co for my thoughts on launching an international career and you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter to chat about…whatever you’d like!