That's it, I Quit! (And Why You Should Too Before It's Too Late)

Lately I’ve been talking a lot with friends and family about my online business. The good part is that I have everyone’s support, which is great. But I still get the sense sometimes that they don’t really “get it”…that they think it’s some sort of hobby or thing I’m doing on the side. And almost no one I’m close to has an understanding of leverage, that time is the one thing you can’t get back, and that there’s an abundance of money and success out there for just about anyone to grab onto. So as of today, I’ve decided:

…trying to explain why I don’t want to be an engineer (even though I have an electrical engineering degree) 

…trying to get across the point that it’s not just about “being my own boss” or “working from home” and that it’s more expansive than that…that it’s really about building a business that gives me FREEDOM. 

…attempting to get across the fact that it’s absolute INSANITY to trade time for money – to trade something absolutely FINITE (time) for something INFINITE in the number of other ways in which it can be obtained (MONEY) 

…explaining over and over and OVER again, ad nauseum, the idea of leverage, of doing work once and continuing to be paid for it over and over again as opposed to “an hour’s pay for an hour’s work” which limits your income by default 

…trying to get people to understand why I still feel like my engineering degree was one of the worst choices I EVER made – potentially stovepiping me into the rat race had I not seen the light 

…constantly explaining that taking a job in order to be able to afford an expensive mortgage is a flat out STUPID idea…it’s just a house for crying out loud. Not that you shouldn’t buy a house, but here in the Maryland/DC Metro area, we have houses in the $400,000 - $500,000 ballpark – CRAZY by any measure unless you have a ridiculous downpayment. 

…trying to explain why I don’t want to play mother-may-I with anyone when it comes to how and where I spend my time, especially when it comes to my family. 

…trying to get people to realize the hard, cold fact that out time here is limited by definition and that giving control of it to someone else is giving away the only thing of real value 

…that having a J-O-B really is being “just over broke” like the joke says…that they’re just going to pay you enough to keep you around 

…explaining how the 40 hour work week is a myth…how is it that it takes everyone EXACTLY 40 hours a week to get done whatever it is that they need to get done? 

…explaining that no matter how efficient you are at your job or how fast you get done whatever it was that you were hired to do, you won’t be rewarded for your efficiency by having to spend less time at work, you’ll just get more work to fill out the 40 hours (e.g., other duties as assigned). But weren’t you hired to take care of “x” that you just got done in half the time? Seems just as reasonable to work slow and inefficient and that’s a problem. 

…trying to get them to see that our educational system is built on the foundation of cranking out employees, followers in large part. Wasn’t American was founded on initiative and individual drive? They didn’t come all the way across the pond looking for a job…sheesh! 

I’m not sure if you’ve got people in your corner, people betting against you or somewhere in between. Just realize that most people are never going to “get” this stuff, so my advice is don’t even bother trying to explain it (other than as a means of keeping the peace with your spouse I suppose). 

Instead, just keep plugging along doing what you know works.

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