9 Reasons To Quit Your Job Forever

Do you dread Monday mornings?

Do you get depressed thinking about the idea of spending 40+ years in a cubicle on lackluster tasks that bore you to death?

I certainly do! But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

I have a confession to make. I quit my job less than two weeks ago to build my online business. There are many reasons behind my decision, one of them being that I hated every minute spent at the office.

I was sick of spending my precious time doing unfulfilling things I wasn’t even good at. I realized that there was no amount of money that would make me continue a job I couldn’t stand.

They could have offered me a billion dollars, and I still would have left without hesitation. No joke! If you’re in the same boat, you’ll be able to relate to most of what I discuss in this article.

Another big reason I quit my job is simply because I had the desire to do something else with my life. I wanted to write more books and create programs that would make a difference in people’s lives. I wanted to learn, study, and grow more.

I also wanted to build something from scratch. I had a big epiphany this year in which I realized with absolute clarity that I was never meant to be an employee.

In this article, I’m going to go over the reasons I quit my job and why you might want to do the same. Okay, let’s get started with the 9 reasons you should consider quitting your job.

 1. You’re not a kid anymore

At 32-years-old, I’ve spent most of my life sitting down and listening to people telling me what to do.

Haven’t most of us? I got sick of it pretty fast, and you probably did, too.

It all starts in school where we have to spend our days listening to lectures on a variety of subjects, most of which we have no use for in our adult lives.

Do they teach us how to manage money? No. Do they tell us about how our minds work? Definitely not. That would be useful, considering how many of us struggle to grasp the impact our thoughts have on our lives.

What about things like coaching skills, meditation, goal-setting, or vocational skills? None of these things are covered in compulsory education.

Perhaps people don’t realize how beneficial this knowledge would be. Then again, it would make us savvy and inquisitive. That, of course, would lead us to ask way too many questions and constantly buck the status quo the minute something seems “off” to us.

In fact, school did a fantastic job at killing my curiosity and subduing my insatiable desire to learn. It wasn’t until college that I finally rediscovered my desire to learn and grow.

The reason for that, you ask?

College provided more freedom than I’d ever had before!

But then, there was work. College doesn’t last forever! I remember a day when one of my superiors told me we shouldn’t expect to enjoy our work. Work was just a way to make living.

I almost accepted that statement as true, but ultimately rejected it. I found it unacceptable, and knew I would have to find a way out of there.

Eventually, I could no longer sit at my desk waiting for someone to tell me what to do.

I don’t need anyone telling me how I should live my life, how much money I should earn, how I should dress, or how I should think. I have enough trust and confidence in myself to live life on my own terms.

2. The commute sucks

In theory, riding a train should be relatively pleasant.

In a big city like Tokyo there are tons of people traveling right along with you, and you’re sure to spot some friendly faces and big smiles at some point or another. Or so you’d think.

I used to watch the people around me when commuting to work in search of smiling faces. I hoped that their positive energy might give an extra boost to trudge through my dull, soul-sucking days, but I just couldn’t find them.

Believe it or not, it was challenging to find just one person with a smile on their face!

I can’t stand crowded places and got to a point where spending the rest of my life on a crowded train each day was completely out of the question. It makes me wonder how I ended up in Tokyo.

I have to give Japan’s salaried workers a lot of credit for their perseverance. Not everyone can bear spending 3 hours a day going to and from work like many of them do.

For some of them, life can literally be summed up as taking the train to work, taking the train home from work, and sleeping. Then rinse and repeat.

You could pay me a billion dollars and I still wouldn’t be willing to go through that.

3. You need permission to go to the bathroom

Do you want to take a month-long vacation?

I’ve got bad news for you. You have a job! Remember?

That means you can’t take more than a 2-week vacation each year (if you’re lucky). If you’re in Japan, it’s hard to get more than one week.

Do you want to go home early some days because you’ve finished your work and want to see your family, watch TV, play sports, or learn how to juggle while riding a unicycle to impress your friends?

Bad news. Your company requires you to stay at your desk for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week before you can get out of jail the office for 2 days. That 2-day break will give you just enough energy to survive the following week of slavery work.

And I’m being optimistic here. There are plenty of people who don’t get weekends off or who work far more than 40 hours a week.

Do you wish you could work 4 days a week instead of 5?

Are you out of your mind? Do you realize you’re asking for the moon here? Your coworkers work Monday through Friday, why should you be allowed to work from Monday to Thursday?

Because you can get 5 days’ worth of work done in 4?

Unfortunately, that’s irrelevant. Is it because most of your work can be done from home? That’s not relevant, either.

The standard definition of work reminds me of Jim Rohn’s saying:

“Some people have so given up on life, they have joined the Thank God It’s Friday Club. How sad!”

I don’t want to give up on life, and that’s exactly what being an employee means for me.

4. You’re throwing your time away

In a sense, working for someone else is like being in jail. You’re trading your time for money, which in turn means giving up your freedom. Here are some simple facts that hold true for most jobs:

• You have to be at a certain place at a specific time each day and suffer punitive consequences if you don’t.
• You have little flexibility regarding your work hours and can’t take vacations unless someone else says you can.
• You exchange your time for money. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
• You don’t benefit much, if any, from the profits made by your company. All you get to do is survive on the most basic level.

If, on the other hand, you’re self-employed or have your own business, you don’t make money for a company, you make money for yourself. You have flexible work hours and get to choose your vacation days.

5. You have no plans to run for office

Are you looking forward to your next promotion? Does exchanging a few hundred extra dollars for your precious time and your already scarce freedom sound exciting to you?

If so, you’ll have to play along and keep up with your company’s office politics.

Hopefully you enjoyed gossiping and keeping up with the popular kids at school, because office politics are often tantamount involve some of the most childish forms of human interaction.

You’ll see 50 or 60-year-olds hating and sabotaging each other as if they’re 4-years-old. It’s not very uncommon!

6. You’re dying inside

Having a job usually limits your ability to grow and learn. You often end up doing the same thing over and over again, which prevents you from learning new, marketable skills.

Some people actually plateau and don’t learn anything new after a certain point in their careers. This is especially true for those who don’t enjoy their jobs, which is the case for many employees.

What are the chances that you’ll make a serious effort to improve skills you learn on the job when you absolutely loathe what you’re doing? It’s pretty unlikely.

Spending your days doing something you can’t stand is draining, and you probably won’t have much energy for self-improvement.

If you’re your own boss and do something you genuinely enjoy, however, you’re likely to continue improving your skills over the years.

This brings me to another point: As your own boss, you must constantly improve your skills if you want your business to flourish. You can’t work passively and rest on your laurels! As you continue to improve your product, service, or skills, you’ll gain a higher market value.

This will leave you in a far better position than the average employee. You’re also likely to enjoy increased job security because skills learned from self-employment will make it easier to find a regular job if your business doesn’t go as planned.

Finally, self-employment compels you to learn some fundamental skills that are transferrable to any field you might pursue in the future. Being a boss necessitates high levels of self-discipline, which makes it easier to learn new skills as needed.

7. Becoming a millionaire is a pipe dream

As an employee, you agree to trade your time for a set amount of money. You’re either paid per hour or given a set amount to carry out a certain role (ex: manager). This arrangement leaves you with very little control over your financial situation.

The best you can hope for is a future promotion or a nice bonus at the end of the year. And even that is a mere 10 to 20％ increase of your current earnings, at best.

Now, let’s say you come up with a fantastic idea that helps your company make a million dollars.

How much credit will you get for that?

Chances are, not much.

You could potentially earn a promotion or bonus, but that’s peanuts compared to what you helped generate for the company.

Imagine how your boss would react if you then went to his office to ask for a 200％ increase in pay or a $100,000 dollar bonus to compensate for your work. He’ll think you’re completely crazy. But are you?

In one sense, yes. You willingly traded your time for a set amount of money, so you knew what to expect when you came up with that great idea.

Am I saying you shouldn’t contribute to your company? No! I’m simply saying that, as an employee, you have to obey specific rules. These rules rarely allow you to get paid based on the real value that you’re providing.

You could pretend to work hard while delivering little value to your company without anyone noticing it. Or you could work your butt off and contribute significantly to your company. Your pay will stay roughly the same either way.

That said, the second option is best, provided you have the motivation and drive to do so. After all, being a high-performer will serve you well if you decide to quit your job.

In contrast, you’re the primary recipient of the profits you make when you’re your own boss. If you come up with and implement a million-dollar idea, most (or perhaps all) of that money goes into your pocket.

Just imagine how much more motivated you’d be to find every possible way of increasing your company’s revenue.

If you have an online business, it’s relatively easy to use leverage to generate more revenue. Whether you sell 1 copy of your digital products or 1,000,000, the amount of work you need to do doesn’t change much.

Sure, you might need to hire some a few people and invest money in marketing, but you can still up your profits dramatically if you’re successful.

When you release products online, you’re not getting paid for your time. That’s the beauty of self-employment, especially via the Internet. You have a product that can be purchased 24/7, so you can make money while you sleep.

You have to learn the skills required to market your products to the appropriate audience, but that goes with the territory.

8. Your job costs way more than you think

When you hold a job that’s tied to a specific location, a large portion of your income goes to rent and other expenses associated with the cost of living in that particular area.

You may find that most of your paycheck is gone once food, rent, and utilities are paid for, regardless of how little you spend on material things. You might start thinking:

“Why am I working so hard for so little money?” or “What’s the point of working if I can’t even treat myself?”

In your attempt to save money, you might choose to live further from the city where the rent is cheaper. Although this may save you money, it will also cost you the time, effort, and stress associated with the joy of traffic jams and packed subways or trains.

Worse yet, the cost of this invigorating transportation experience might actually be expensive enough to offset the benefits of lower rent.

These costs are all by-products of having to be at a certain place at a specific time every day. In other words, they’re the by-products of being an employee.

Being your own boss enables you to avoid many, if not all, of these costs.

If, for instance, you have an online business, you can choose to live in a place with affordable rent. You could even decide to live in a different country with a much lower cost of living.

Both options will significantly reduce the cost of everything from rent and utilities to clothes and food. You’ll also be able to reduce your work hours. Last but not least, you can avoid the stress of commuting.

Clothes that meet the company dress code and other out-of-pocket job-related expenses may be part of the cost of being an employee. These may or may not be avoided when you’re your own boss.

For more information on how to escape your cubicle check out my article: How to Escape the Rat Race and Live the Life you Want

9. You’re selling your soul

Finally, your employer may expect you to do things you consider unethical and truly wish you didn’t have to do.

I once had a job where I was asked to call businesses to obtain certain data. I was told to pretend to work for a different company and come up with fictitious scenarios to get information they wouldn’t have given otherwise.

This required blatant lies, and I didn’t like that. When you’re your own boss, your standard of ethics and what you will and won’t do are entirely up to you.

Conclusion

So there you have it. These are the reasons I decided to quit my job with no plans of returning to the life of an employee ever again.

Quitting your job is a difficult decision and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to everyone. That said, those of you considering it are probably wondering, “Should I quit my job?” If so, don’t worry. The next article will cover this question, so stay tuned for the next post!

Did you quit your job to create your own business? Do you plan to quit your job in the future? Share your experiences in the comments section, I’d love to hear your story!

You might also like:

How to Escape the Rat Race and Live the Life you Want

10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job (Steve Pavlina’s blog)

Jobs vs. Passive Income (Steve Pavlina’s blog)

Vlogging:

My Youtube videos in which I share some of my challenges, insights and learnings as I’m building my online business.

Books:

Successfully Unemployed: 16 Real Life Lessons You Must Learn Before You Quit Your Job and Live the Life of Your Dreams, Dustin Heiner.

If you plan to quit your job some time in the future, this guide will provide you with some practical tips to ensure your transition is a success.

The Millionaire Fastlane, MJ DeMarco.

This book explains what differentiate poor people from rich people and provide you with a formula to get rich. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme and it doesn’t guarantee that you will succed, but if you’re willing to go that path, the book offers you great perspectives on the mindset you need to adopt and what you need to do in order to get there.

 

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