Running away from your job: does it disqualify you.
Running away from your job does not disqualify you as a founder. Businesses started by people escaping something are ordinary, and many of them work. However, being pushed changes your preparation, because you need a plan for when the relief wears off.
Ambition or grudge, you cannot tell yet.
You may ask whether your ambition is just a grudge. Honestly, you cannot tell yet, and neither can Diego. Some people want to build, some want to leave, and plenty want both. Running away from your job and running toward something can sit together. Also, the mix inside one person shifts across a single year. So thinking in the bath will not answer it.
When running away from your job meets month seven.
The whole immigrant literature describes people who were pushed. So being pushed makes you differently prepared, not worse. A person running toward something needs a plan for the thing. Instead, a person running away needs a plan for when relief fades. According to Diego, that happens at about month seven.
When the job test changes your mind.
If nobody replied, the second door is heavier than you thought. That does not mean your business will fail. It means leaving costs more than you priced, with less safety net. However, if you got an offer and took it, that is allowed. It cost three afternoons, and it showed the problem was the employer.
Plan for running away from your job honestly.
Write what you will do when the relief of leaving wears off, around month seven.
Record the result of your three applications, including silence, as one line on the page.
From the book.
That is allowed. Entirely allowed. This is a book about deciding well rather than about resigning, and if a competing employer solves the whole thing for the price of a better title and a shorter commute, you have your answer and it cost you three afternoons. Just notice what happened, because the problem was the employer.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 5: Stuck is not the same as ready
Questions about running away from your job.
Does running away from your job make me a worse founder?
No. It makes you differently prepared, so you need a plan for when the relief fades.
What if nobody replied to my applications?
Then leaving is more expensive than you priced. It does not tell you your business will fail.
What if I took a competing offer?
That is entirely allowed. You have your answer, and the problem was the employer.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 5, “Stuck is not the same as ready”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Passed over for promotion: when skill is not the issue.
- 02 Opportunity vs necessity entrepreneurship: why it broke.
- 03 Test the job market: apply for three jobs.
- 04 Blocked mobility entrepreneurship: the three doors.
- 05 Why do employees really quit: the shock that starts it.
- 06 Nietzsche on work: the best policeman.
- 07 Immigrant self employment: the price of a shut door.
- 08 Running away from your job: does it disqualify you.