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I get at least three emails from people every day asking me whether they should quit their job to pursue their passion. And since I’ve done this a few times, I thought I would lay out a little bit of a framework that has helped me make that decision. So a little bit about my own career first. I’ve worked with Procter & Gamble, then Boston Consulting Group. Then Kraft Foods and then later as the Chief Marketing Officer of a New York-based startup. And through all of this, I’ve had a pretty steady ascent in the corporate ladder.
I started as an assistant manager with P&G and went on to positions of increasing responsibility before becoming the Chief Marketing Officer in about 12 or 13 years. So reasonably solid growth. In parallel, though I’ve been able to strategically quit my job at various points in order to do things that truly mattered to me as a person. So in 2008, I quit Procter & Gamble to backpack around the world for a full year. Then in 2012, I quit Kraft to take a year off to learn yoga and meditation and write my novel. And then very recently I have taken a mini-sabbatical in order to launch ‘The Yoga of Max’s Discontent’ my first international novel in the US, in the UK, worldwide in spring when Random House releases it. So I’ve been able to kind of do a little bit of the balancing game. It hasn’t been easy and to give you full perspective I don’t come from an entrepreneurial family. My mother was a school teacher, my dad was in the army and they’ve had like one career all their lives. And nobody in our family would ever have taken time to travel, to write.
To do anything and that or to start their own venture. And that’s why every time I made this decision it’s been a very agonizing process for me. I’ve spent a few months thinking about it and then you know making a decision then not making a decision and agonizing over the decision so I thought I’d layout a little bit of a framework so that you don’t have to go through the same cycle when you’re about to make a decision.
The important thing here is that nobody truly can make the decision for you because what’s happening inside you when you’re asking that question is not completely rational it’s a very emotional process and only you know where you stand. What I can help you layout is a little bit of a framework. So I always ask myself three questions when I’m ready to make that decision. And rather one question each depending on the nature of the choice. So let me explain further. The first kind of choice you’re making is are you quitting your job for what I would call a spiritual pursuit or a pursuit of the spirit? And that means you’re quitting a job for no tangible reason. Not to make more money with another job. Or to make billions with your own startup. You’re quitting to, for instance, travel, write, make a music album.
All pursuits that are not necessarily gonna lead to any financial returns but are extremely important to you as a spirit, to kind of enhance your spirit. And those are often the hardest ones to make because there’s a very high level of risk. In fact, it’s all risk because you’re gonna lose your steady income and you’re gonna spend money in a pursuit that is likely not gonna lead to much income unless of course, you get a book deal and stuff that is highly unpredictable. Right? And I’ve made these decisions in, as I said in 2008 when I quit to travel and then in 2012 and I’ve never regretted the decisions at all when I’ve come back. But there are one criteria for that kind of decision and that criteria is have you reached a point that you can’t breathe anymore until you do that thing full time? Right, so if you’re feeling that moment every day that your heart is contracting, your stomach tightens, your whole mind is rebelling because you have to go to your day job instead of writing your book or instead of making your music or instead of travelling. When you reach the point that you can’t breathe any more then you know definitely it is time to quit So for instance, for me in 2012 Kraft was giving me a very, very big promotion.
Well, about 10 years ahead of my career. But I knew that there was not even a moment that I considered it because I’d reached a point that I had to write The Yoga of Max’s Discontent’. And I had to learn yoga and meditation in the Himalayas. I knew that I couldn’t survive if I didn’t do that almost. And then I made that decision and then I took a year off to do it and later I came back and actually got that promotion anyway. But that wasn’t the point even if I hadn’t I would never have thought that it was the wrong decision because I had reached a point that I couldn’t breathe anymore until I made that decision. So the question is One, is it a pursuit of the spirit? And if it’s a pursuit of the spirit then the only question you need to ask yourself has you reached a point where you can’t breathe anymore and if you have then do it if you haven’t then keep working on it on the side, as I’ve said many times. I wrote my first two novels on the side while pursuing my career and I hadn’t reached that point so I kept doing it. So that’s kind of your first scenario. Your second scenario is are you quitting your job for entrepreneurial reasons? An entrepreneurial reason is to start your own product. Or start your own service-based business or in my case to launch a novel with the hope that it can turn into something very significant. And these are all kind of like very almost I would say again you’re chasing a dream but it’s still a rational dream. Right, you’re making a rational choice that if I leave this security then I can probably get a huge upside if whatever I’m working on turns out to be a huge success. Right, so that’s a more rational decision process. And in that rational decision process, the way I look at it is, first I become very familiar with the fact that I have a 90% chance of failure as defined in the conventional sense. So in this case for instance, when I have taken a sabbatical to launch a book there is a 90% chance that the book will just do average like 99% of books do. And there is like 10% or even a smaller chance that I can make it something very significant and it can become a huge bestseller or reach millions of people. But I’m going in with my eyes open. That there is a 90% chance of failure and I’m not just operating on that 10% chance of success. So when I go into this 90% chance of failure the only question I ask myself is do I have 18 months of salary saved up to pay myself? Right and that’s kind of a pretty rational thought for me in which if I have 18 months of salary then I’m gonna pay myself versus building someone else’s dream. I’m gonna pay myself to build my own dream. And the logic there is that it’ll take you 12 months to figure out whether you are close to cracking it or not. And if you’re not cut your losses and spend six months looking for a new job. And if you have 18 months of that cushion then go ahead and do it whether you have kids or you don’t have kids. Or you have dependents so you don’t have dependents. It doesn’t really matter.
If you have 18 months of salary saved up then go ahead. Take that risk and try to build your dream versus someone else’s dream. And you’ll never regret it again because what Jeff Bezos calls the regret minimization framework’ is very true here. In the long run, you will not regret that you spent 18 months worth of money and didn’t make any money to pursue your dream. You’ll never regret that but you’ll definitely regret that you had this idea and you didn’t pursue it because you were too risk-averse. So again a very clear rational process. Right now I know that I would have 18 months of salary, so I’m like you know consciously taken the time to figure out how to launch my novel and build a writing career and if it doesn’t work out then I’m gonna start looking for a job after 12 months. So that’s kind of the second process. The second kind of decision point. Now your final and which is most common scenario is that you are deciding whether you should quit your current job to move to a new job. And I would be very, very, very careful with this.
Are you moving from job A to job B because there is some kind of a vacuum in your life?
I would say fill that vacuum with things that are more meaningful and satisfy your spirit more versus another job whether that’s writing a book or making music. Or learning a new hobby or travelling or doing something which actually fills your spirit. But if it’s a genuine choice that you want to move between job A to job B then I would say ignore any small increment in salary or title those are not the right reasons to make a move. You should make a move only if you feel there is gonna be a tremendous and I mean tremendous growth opportunity. And if you can truly answer that yes they’d be tremendous growth. A difference between job A versus job B only then make the move. If you’re moving from Procter & Gamble to Pepsi or PNG to Kraft which I did which was I think was a big mistake because every corporation has some ups and downs. There’ll be some good, there’ll be some bad. So you’re just kind of trading. Building someone’s dream here to building someone’s dream there and there is no big upside in the move. Having said that when I left Kraft to become the Chief Marketing Officer for a start-up it was a tremendous growth opportunity because I was running a big team myself. I was operating a very different environment and that there was it like a great learning opportunity which has actually had a tremendous effect on my life.
So that’s it, you have three scenarios. And choose and ask the right question in each scenario and make the decision.
- I want to leave my job for the pursuit of a spirit. Question: Have you reached a point where you can’t breathe anymore until you do that pursuit full-time? Then yes, quit your job.
- I want to leave my job for my own entrepreneurial venture. Ask yourself, do you have 18 months of salary to pay yourself? Then yes go ahead and build your own dream. Or take a chance of building your own dream.
- I want to quit my job to move from company A to company B. Only do that if you think there is gonna be tremendous growth opportunity in your personal and your career front.
I hope this was helpful. I know it’s a tough decision. But I’m sure you make the right one and I’ll see you again next week. Thank you. Bye. This is Karan Bajaj and I want to offer you my free meditation video course today.
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