It’s the classic problem, right?
You can’t do what you love because, first, you would have to quit your dayjob. And that can’t happen because: rent and food and shoes, OHMYGOD!
So you’re stuck where you are, hating your life, watching those lucky people who seem to have this all figured out.
Here’s the thing. I know this feels reasonable and practical. But it’s really not.
Life isn’t ever all or nothing.
When you need new clothes, you don’t first set fire to your old clothes and head to the store naked, do you?
No. You buy a few new items and start working them into your existing wardrobe. And, if you like them more, you get rid of the older stuff.
You don’t need to destroy the comfort of the old to start exploring the new.
Plus, what if you decide you actually look wretched in that puce jumpsuit?*
Same deal here.
The answer is: you don’t quit your dayjob.
You make some time to try what you love a little, and then a little more.
If feels right, if it is what you’re really meant to do, and, if you can make enough money at it-then you quit your job.
Listen: even Einstein had a dayjob. And look at what he was able to do in his spare time.
Similarly, getting a dayjob while you are working hard on your entrepreneurial project really isn’t a defeat. It’s a subsidy to your great work.
You simply cannot give it the energy and focus it needs while you’re in a flat out financial panic.
TRAVELER’S TIP: Stop beating up on yourself for not risking it all. Start doing what you can from a place of strength and security. But start right now. Because the real risk is never starting at all.
*with all props to Barbara Sher for the bonfire of the wardrobe metaphor!
