The Year I almost Quit
At the start of 2014 my life was changing at a rather unexpected pace.
- The blog I had started in 2009 had evolved far beyond where it had started.
- I’d written a self published Wall Street Journal Best Seller, and been on the Glenn Beck Show.
- The podcast I had created with nothing more than a microphone and laptop was now the Unmistakable Creative and we had managed to sell out a 60 person 9 speaker conference in 2 weeks.
I had insane momentum and what seemed like a midas touch.
But by the end of 2014 things had really fallen apart. It had been months since our business had generated much revenue. The momentum was gone, along with anyone who believed in what I was doing. And I was even getting notes from fans saying that “the small army you’ve created has disbanded” which was a not so subtle reference to things I’d written in my first self published book, The Small Army Strategy. And I was wrestling with a question that I think every entrepreneur does at one time or another.
“Should I quit?”
I was staring down a runway that didn’t seem very long at our burn rate, and it had been nearly 6 years of working at an online project, watching people surpass me, writing about 6 figure product launches, getting book deals, and more. And watching other friends do everything I thought I should have done by now. My hair was a little grayer my parents a bit more concerned that I still wasn’t anywhere near married, and continuing along what appeared to be a rather uncertain and unstable future.
Quitting was beginning to seem like a decent idea. But if I quit, then what? I’d written about the fact that I’ve been fired from nearly every job I’d been at. How would anybody hire me? And what else would I do?
Some people will encourage you to put a deadline on dreams that matter. If it hasn’t happen by x date, it might be time to call it quits. Others will tell you that it will become a self fulfilling prophecy if you decide you’re going to quit on a certain date. I don’t know that there is a right answer here.
Society encourages persistence in situations that lead to guaranteed outcomes like going to law school or medical school. But persisting in uncertain outcomes is admired only when you succeed, but frowned upon when you fail.
On the one hand a drop dead date after this much time seemed like a good idea. On the other I could end up being responsible for my own demise. There’s a quote by Felix Dennis that kind of hit me in the face with a crowbar.
Quitting is ok. Quitting when you still believe you can succeed is not.
On some level I still believed I could succeed. Since I couldn’t spin bullshit into bullets on a resume I kept going. But in many ways I was standing on the edge of a cliff, one where jumping off it and hoping for a crash landing was seeming like a pretty decent alternative to life. My friend an now business partner Brian Koehn talked me off that metaphorical ledge.
The difference between quitting altogether and my book deal was 2 months. And in that 2 months my editor had returned to publishing from her job at Skillshare, found my 1000 word a day article, and sent me an email about writing a book.
So if you feel like quitting, give it 2 months. It’s not much more time, but it also could make a profound difference in how things turn out.
If you’ve decided to attempt anything of greater significance, like building a company, starting a non-profit or base jumping off the World Trade Center, you will have a moment of doubt. You will probably want to quit. All I can say is you’re not alone.
I’m the host and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast.” Expand on that by adding, “Every Sunday we share the most unmistakable parts of the internet that we have discovered in The Sunday Quiver. Receive our next issue by signing up here.
