Escaping Your Job – From A Guy Who Hasn’t Done It Yet

Note from Kimanzi: This is a guest post from Mike Greig who is an aspiring entrepreneur, dragon slayer, pilot and pursuer of a life worth living. He blogs because he has decided to stop letting life punch him in the stomach, and pursue the things that matter to him, the things he really loves. You can read his blog here or follow him on Facebook.

More than anything in life right now, I want to leave my job.

I work as a truck driver and can’t stand my work. It’s a pain I share with Kimanzi who has been in similar conditions for years. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the job or driving in general, quite the opposite in fact. By most people’s standards it’s a job that I would be foolish to leave. Good pay, doesn’t require lots of brain power, security etc….The problem is with me. I am following an education and a set of rules that I don’t believe in.

“You make good money, you ought to be thankful” “Scared of hard work are ya?”

These are the types of things that people say to me when I tell them of my dream to build my online businesses to a place where I can leave my current job. And for a time, I started to believe them. Maybe there is something wrong with me. Maybe I should just stay here and work my life away with these guys. Until a few months ago. I read Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4 Hour Workweek” (which I recommend by the way) and had this realization.

I’m only doing this because it’s what I was taught to do.

I’m just simply not cut out to do this stuff and there’s nothing wrong with that. The guys at work were all taught the same things. They are giving me a hard time because I’m pulling them dangerously close to the edge of their comfort zone. Maybe they really love their work, I don’t know. What I do know is when I talk about leaving, there’s nothing but discouraging words. Like a herd of sheep they collectively chime “Don’t dooooooo it, come baaaaaaack”

There are millions of guys who are cut out for the type of work I do. They enjoy the regular income and the “security” that comes with it. I’m just not willing to pretend that I’m one of them any longer.

The time is now for me to decide what I want my 1-year-old daughter to learn from her dad. Should I teach her to get a job she will dislike, stay with it for 40 years, MAYBE retire and teach her kids to do the same? All this time I have thought that the most responsible thing that I can do as a parent is endure the repetitive, boring job and teach my daughter that this is what responsible people do.

Or would I rather her know that there countless other paths that she can choose to take in life, unconventional, but maybe exactly what she was designed for. That her decisions about what to do with her life do not need to be guided solely by the illusion of security and stability. What if I showed here that it’s ok to try to maybe fail in a huge way at something that really matters to her?

I’m not here to tell you to quit your job or make any kind of massive change in your life. Maybe you’re happy with where you are and what you do, that’s for you to decide. If you are fulfilled and have a sense of purpose in what you do then my hat is off to you. My experience has been however, that most don’t feel this way and it makes me sad.

Nothing is easy. Choosing to live your days in tolerable and unfulfilling work conditions is far harder in my opinion than getting out there and trying something new.

I’m not a pro internet marketer, I’m a truck driver who has to Google search things like “how to put a picture on my website” and “how to guest post for Kimanzi “ But I’m working on it. I’m not out of my job yet, but every day I work as hard as I can and I’m not going to give up. Every day a new wall comes down and I’m a little bit closer to my dream of working from home to spend more time with my daughter.

I made my first $66 dollars online this month and proved beyond a doubt that it can be done. Few things are as hard as you think they’re going to be once you actually get moving on them and work on them as though there were no chance you could fail.

I want you to try something. Rather than viewing all potential opportunities in terms of what they can offer you in terms of pay, security or benefits etc. Think about what you would do with your time if money were not an issue, and work backwards from there.

What work situation do you want to escape from? What do you want to escape to do?