Should i leave my job or continue?

Question

Hello everyone,

Hope you guys are doing well, I have one question, currently i'm working as a security consultant. I earn 3k$ per month. But I want to go fulltime indie maker. I feel bored when i'm working on my job role. Its not like its hard. I can handle it. But i'm not getting that kick. 
Also, i have this question like, if i leave my job, how i'm able to survive? I'm 28. And i don't know what to do. From starting i want to be a maker. I want to create products that can help users.

Please share me your opinions. It would be very helpful for me.

Thanks in advance,
Shazeb

Marc Köhlbrugge · Accepted Answer

Great question. I have a couple of thoughts:

1. How many months would you need to figure out if you can make a profitable business that provides sufficient income? How many months do you think it would take you to find a job again if the maker approach doesn’t work out? Add those two numbers together, and multiply that by your monthly living costs. That’s how much savings you’d need to give a good try.

2. Work towards saving up that amount of money at a minimum. If you can lower your monthly living expenses you’ll get there quicker.

3. Going full-time on your own project sounds wonderful and it is. But just because you now got 40+ hours a week available to spend on your product doesn’t mean those will all be productive. Often the few hours a week people spend on the side of their main job are relatively much higher impact. So you might be disappointed by what change going full time might have. It could also be the opposite. Some people are so exhausted working their main job, they have little energy left for their side project. My main point is this: you don’t really know what it will be like to go full time on your own project. So plan accordingly.

4. Personally I wouldn’t leave a steady paycheck until I know my own project can cover all my living expenses with a decent margin. So I’d probably start searching for a different job where I have some free time for my own project + where I learn stuff I can apply to my own product. It sounds like your current job is not a good fit.

5. I never had a regular job. And I’m grateful for the other opportunities I got. But I do sometimes feel I missed out on learning from others. And learning how businesses work from the inside. So that’s a perspective that might be useful for you. If you can find the right (temporary) job that should help you grow as a person/maker.

Swizec Teller · Answer

My standard advice for this sort of thing is “If you’re asking, the answer is yes”.

You’ve already decided. Now it’s time for the conscious self to catch up and reverse engineer a logical reason for your decision so you can feel good about it.

With that out of the way, I would flip the question: “What do I need to be able to quit my job?”. Figure that out and get to work.

Yaroslav Mykhailov · Answer

I would add some life hack, just keep in mind. Changing a place can also very help in saving money. Just to live some time in different location can help to your save more money and left you comfort style life.

Raoul Agin Gfart · Answer

I changed location from Oslo to a much smaller town. I sold my apartment and I am using the "winnings" from the sale to finance my bootstrapping.

My whole financial situation changed from "Damn, I soon have to make it or get a job again" to "Nice, I can keep bootstrapping for a long time and even travel a bit".

Marc Köhlbrugge · Answer

Some good advice here by Jason Fried: https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1592591085863260160

Jelmer de Boer · Answer

I've always 'liked' working ~20 hrs a week for a company and the rest of the time on my own projects. Not because a regular job is nice, but it helps to stay in touch with normie world and it's nice to have colleagues. It leaves plenty of time to pursue my own projects plus with the income of the 20 hrs I can pay all my bills. This way I don't have to stress about making money and I can do whatever I want on the side.

You might want to consider this option instead of choosing either a full time job or being an indie maker.

Gunjan Karun · Answer

Based on my two decades of doing this, I would strongly recommend NOT quit your job at this stage when there is more than a 90% probability that you will fail.

Here are my recommendations
* Spend some time identifying a problem worth solving.
* Find out people who have those problems
* Talk to those people and understand the problem better and how much they are already spending to address that problem
* Plan out how you will address it better.
* Inform them that you are building a solution for them, walk them through your proposed solution, and get their feedback 
* If possible, take some advance payment from them (This is optional but try to get some level of commitment from them)
* THEN QUIT YOUR JOB.

Till that time, I strongly suggest that you do not quit your job.

Finding a good product to build along with users is a time-consuming process. A regular cash flow gives you the freedom of being patient and not make desperate decisions.

This will not be easy. You will have to work extra hours over your scheduled work hours, work on weekends, skip binge-watching Game of Thrones, and so on but this will be a less painful way to build a sustainable startup.

Jelmer de Boer · Answer

There are two schools of thought:
1) save money in your regular job to help start being a maker
2) quit and be a maker and than you have to make money

Marc Köhlbrugge · Answer

> How many months would you need to figure out if you can make a profitable business that provides sufficient income?

It really depends on how fast you ship. For example maybe on average it takes about 20 tries to find a product idea that works for you. So if you can ship really fast and try a new product once a week, then it would take 20 weeks. If it takes you a month to try a new idea, then it will take 20 months, etc.

Personally I'd probably want about 6 months to try a bunch of different ideas, find something that works, and then grow it to a point where it covers my living expenses.

Jelmer de Boer · Answer

If you have to choose, choose being a maker.

Raoul Agin Gfart · Answer

Haha, I wish, but I also get your point about Oslo 😄

I went from monthly housing expenses of 1000$/m to 200-300$/m. I think that can be relatable numbers for many places. Not living like a king yet 🙂

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@swizec Thanks for the response. Maybe you are right. But I'm more concerned about, how I'm able to survive. Should I work for six more months and save up to 5k$? I'm not sure, how to take a step forward.

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@jelmerdeboer thanks for the reply. With my current job, I have to work 40hrs. And I don't think they will agree If I want to work only for 20hrs.

Yaroslav Mykhailov · Answer

For your case i guess even in California will be very cheap :)))

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@marc Maybe I'll come to Thailand and start shipping. :D

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@marc Thanks for this. :)

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@marc by the way how much money do I need if I want to survive for 6mnth in Thailand?

Marc Köhlbrugge · Answer

Haha. Living expenses in Thailand can vary greatly depending on what you want. Not sure what a minimum would be, but you shouldn't be too hard to figure out by checking Airbnb prices etc.

Keep in mind though depending on your passport you can only stay a limited time in Thailand.

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@marc the 4th point is on point. I think my current job is very different. When I compare it to what I'm trying to do. I think I have to find something related to web development.
Also, you are right, The things which I learned from the security field are good. And I want to make some products for that field. I want to find one job, where I can do dev. So I can start learning in the day job and apply the same on to my side projects.
If I want to go again full-time for a job. It hardly talks 2-3 months I guess

How many months would you need to figure out if you can make a profitable business that provides sufficient income?
For this point, I really don't know what will work. I have to do a hit and try.

Also, Thanks for your input.

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

I always wanted to be a maker. But I'm also scared sometimes. Because I don't know how to survive until I start making money.

Shazeb Hussaini · Answer

@gunjankarun Thanks!

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