Hi Brian,

I wanted to write a quick email to let you know that I really enjoying reading your blog. I actually stumbled upon it when I was browsing randomly at Youtube videos and saw your video about not watching the news. I purposely don’t watch the news, mainly because I, like you, don’t think what is presented is any way reflective of what really is happening around me. It’s usually negative and biased in my opinion. So, I read certain portions of the New York Times and lots of blogs. From watching that video, I checked out your website, and I started reading the articles there. I happen to read lifehack.org almost religiously, and saw the donald trump criticism article, and realized that I’ve been reading your articles all along and just never made the connection.

Anyways, I just wanted to send you an email to commend you on your work and introduce myself. It’s always refreshing to see some of the philosophies I believe in practiced by others. I’m finishing up my PhD in grad school this year in Dallas, and I’m at a standstill of what I want to do next or where I want to go. I love the principles you teach on your website; I would love to start a job on my own terms, rather than work at an academic institution or pharmaceutical company. Frankly though, it’s utterly frightening since I have no idea how or where to start. I’d love to hear more about your motivation and your initial fears in starting what you started, so maybe I can get a sense of how I can get balance life with work.

Keep up the great work and hope to talk soon,
J

Hi J,

Good to hear from you. Yep I was in the same position recently. Finished up grad school and had always wanted to work for myself, but the temptation of big companies was too great (and also I think on some level I was afraid others would think I just couldn’t get a real job and that’s why I became an entrepreneur). So anyway I took an offer at Deloitte & Touche out of grad school, really didn’t like it that much, quit after 3 months to work for myself. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

I think I had to do that corporate thing at least for a bit though so I knew what I was missing when I left. Otherwise I would have always wondered, especially when the going got rough. Entrepreneurship has some big ups and downs, its an emotional roller-coaster and you’ll want to quit at times, so it’s good to have some firm sense of what you DON’T want to go back to to use as motivation. It’s finally starting to pay off, but it didn’t happen right away (about four years actually).

Quitting is really hard. And if you go the corporate route “just to try it” and then go get a nice new house and car that you need to make payments on, you could end up trapped in the rat race for a while. Keep your expenses low and have confidence in yourself that if you were ever about to hit poverty you can always get another job. From that point of view, you really aren’t giving up much by quitting.

I’d start trying out a bunch of business ideas (whatever interests you) and see what works. This will be a great education that you can do on your own for a bit or on the side while at a job. Don’t be afraid to go through a dozen ideas or so before finding something that works (9 out of 10 of my business ideas utterly fail so I go through them quickly and inexpensively). If and when one of them hits, it will make it a lot easier to quit. I had a little company going before quitting. I took a huge pay-cut by leaving but it certainly made it easier.

Find solace in the fact that although you aren’t sure what to do, NO one (especially at your age) really knows what they want to do in life. At least YOU are spending some serious time thinking about it and exploring options instead of taking the safe and easy way out that everyone else does. That’s something very few people do.

Keep us posted and best of luck!
Brian