It’s time for me to quit… (6/30)

I lived in China on and off for almost two years trying to build a company.

And what I had to realize back then is that quitting is hard. Really, really hard. It’s a lot harder than starting. Knowing when to quit is probably the hardest thing out there.

Admitting failure, even if it’s just temporary, even if you’ve learned a hell lot is never easy. It’s one of the toughest things out there. Telling yourself “Yupp, that’s it, I’ll now pack my things and leave“ is a lot harder than it sounds.

So here are a few things I’ve learned back then. And over the following years. Here are the things that made me realize that it was about time to pack my things and go. Over and over again…

a) GETTING SICK

When you’re constantly getting sick, then your body wants to send you a message. It’s your body telling you that it’s time to stop. That it’s not worth it. That you should be doing something else. And when that happens then you know that it’s probably a good idea to pack your things and go.

Because what’s going to happen when you’re constantly sick, when you don’t get enough sleep, is that everything else will stop working. You won’t be able to think properly anymore. You’ll constantly be making the wrong decisions and most importantly you’ll stop seeing clearly. And from there everything will get worse and worse.

I was constantly sick. My body was constantly sending me signals. And I tried to ignore them for as long as I could. One time when I went back home to Germany some of my friends told me that my face was yellow. That’s how sick I was. And that’s when I knew that I had to get the hell out of here…

b) EATING JUNK FOOD

When you’re constantly eating junk food and drinking unhealthy soft drinks it’s your body trying to send you a signal. Heck! Again? What’s up with all of these signals?

Your body wants to tell you that something is wrong. That something is missing. And whatever that is, your body wants that feeling to go away. Your body doesn’t want to feel bad, so just like a drug addict, your body is telling you to inject as much trash into your body as possible so you can feel a bit better for a bit.

But after that quick high it will be even worse than before. It’s a vicious circle. A circle you need to break out of as fast as you can. The sooner the better…

c) DRINKING ALCOHOL

Here’s why most people go out partying like crazy and get drunk on the weekends. Or as a matter of fact buy all sorts of crap they don’t really need.

People do it because they tell themselves that they deserve it. That all week long they’ve been doing things they didn’t enjoy doing. Things that didn’t make them happy.

“Screw this. Now is me time. Now is the time to be happy and pack all the fun that was missing during the week into a few short hours. Let’s get all the fun and happiness from that week back.”

What people don’t realize is that every time you get super drunk is that you’re stealing happiness from the next day. Or the following day. And depending on how often you do this, you might end up stealing all of your life’s happiness. Only to end up being an unhappy shell of what you’ve once been…

d) EVERYTHING

Alright. Alright. Here’s something more positive. Another sign that it might be a good time to quit is that you’ve done everything you can. And I don’t mean that you’ve tried hiring people to do the job for you but couldn’t find anyone to do it for you.

What I mean is that when you’re stuck that you’d have to learn all of these things yourself. That’s what I mean do everything you can.

When we couldn’t find a designer because everyone was charging us a ridiculous amount of money I started learning Illustrator and started designing t-shirts. And then I designed all our products.

When we couldn’t find a factory to produce in small quantities, I went out there and learned everything about screen printing and printed the shirts myself.

I also learned how to use a sewing machine to sew the tags on the shirts. So if you’ve done everything you can and it still doesn’t work out then just pack your things and leave…

e) FUN

When it’s just no fun anymore at all, then just quit. Life is too short to do things that aren’t fun anymore. But try to remember d)…

f) LEARNING

If you feel like you don’t or can’t learn anything anymore because you’ve already learned everything you can and don’t see how you could progress any further, then just quit.

Too many people get stuck in dead end jobs, projects, relationships or whatever because at one point they stopped progressing. And then lost all of their momentum. And losing momentum is the worst thing that could ever happen to you.

When you’re standing still for just a few short days, weeks, months or even worse a few years, then you’ll almost never be able to get that momentum back. It’s super hard to get momentum back going. It’s not impossible. But very, very hard.

That’s why so many talented and smart people get stuck in life and end up in dead end jobs. They’ve missed the point of moving on to the next thing.

Never lose momentum! And when you start losing momentum, you have to get out of there as fast as possible…

g) EXERCISE

At my first job I usually came home around 5 or 6pm. Sometimes even 4pm. But still, I felt so tired every day I came home it was insane. I felt like I ran a marathon. I couldn’t do anything anymore when I came home. All I could do was to turn on the TV only to wake up at 3am in the morning with my work clothes on. When you’re constantly doing things you don’t want to be doing, you’ll always feel exhausted. It’s your body telling you that you should quit…

h) OPPORTUNITIES

As soon as a better opportunity comes along, take it. It doesn’t make any sense to keep doing that other thing when all you secretly want is to to that new thing. That thing that might be better for you. And everybody else around you.

But what about loyalty? There’s nothing more loyal than leaving or quitting when you get a better opportunity. Because when you stay you’ll only destroy other people’s opportunities. Be it in a relationship, a business or whatever.

If you want to take that opportunity but you don’t take it, you’ll only feel miserable and make everyone else around you feel miserable as well…

i) SLEEP

If you don’t sleep enough your mind will always be weak. And when your mind is weak you’ll be eating junk food and drinking brown sugar water all the time. Or alcohol. You need to be well rested to be able to resist all the temptations out there.

Again, it’s a vicious circle. So if you’re not able to get enough sleep for a period longer than you’d like to admit to your friends or your family then get the hell out of there…

But even more importantly when you start to realize that the things you’re doing don’t really have an impact, that no one really needs what you’re doing, that someone else could easily be doing the exact same thing you’re doing, when you realize that you’re easily replaceable, then just quit.

Because what that means is that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing. That you’re not doing that one thing you were sent here to be doing. And you need to do everything you can to do the thing you were sent here for. You owe it to yourself. And the people around you. Heck, you owe it to the entire world.

So get going…

P.S. Did you know that I’m writing a new book? This post is a part of it. You can now pre-order the entire book so you won’t miss a thing. To conveniently read it on your e-reader, your tablet or your phone. It’s pay-as-much-as-you-want right now. Learn more and get access here…