Don’t quit your job just because the Twitterati says you should

This may be an unpopular opinion these days, but there’s nothing wrong with having a full-time job. Being employed by someone else, and not being your own boss, is perfectly acceptable.

You’d never know it based on the number of tweets along the lines of:

I quit my $150K/year job 9 minutes ago without a plan and now I’m making $43K HRR (hourly recurring revenue). Stop being such a sucker and follow these 3 simple steps to succeed just like me.

Not all jobs are created equal, nor are all employers.

I happen to have a fantastic job at an amazing company, where I’m valued and I have personal autonomy. I’m fulfilled and respect my teammates and managers.

Does everyone have that? No. Is the answer to throw it all away and risk it all by becoming a “creator” or “maker” in the hopes that you can earn enough money to support yourself (and your family, if you have one)?

For some people, maybe. But not for most people.

Crunch the Numbers

Let’s say for argument’s sake that you have a job that pays you $65K/year. That’s $5,416 per month. I’m not including benefits or taxes here.

Even if you had a product that earned you $299 per sale, you’d have to reliably sell 18 of those every single month.

If you’re charging $25/month for something, you’ll need 216 people to pay you monthly. There will be churn, so you’ll need new customers.

Entrepreneurship is Damn Hard

Spend any time watching people #buildinpublic on Twitter and you’ll see how truly difficult it is to succeed as an entrepreneur.

There are many outliers out there who manage to succeed, but to quit your job entirely in the hopes that self-employment will quickly fill the gap seems naive and short-sighted to me.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog