Betting on Myself

Why I Left

Someone asked me recently why I quit my job to start my own business.

I thought about it for a moment and said: desire.

I felt I was worth more than the work I was doing every day.

My old job was good. I had stock, insurance, and benefits. My coworkers were good, too. If I were still in my twenties, I definitely wouldn’t have quit.

So in some ways, leaving wasn’t a rational decision.

But as I got older, something in me changed.

There was a moment when I looked in the mirror and was surprised to see far more gray hair than I’d noticed before. A wave of sadness came over me. I told my wife, “I’ve already grown old without accomplishing enough.”

There was another moment when my wife was on a work call at home, and our baby, who had just learned to walk, came crying into her room, wanting to play. Our nanny tried hard to take her back to the living room. My wife had to stay composed and apologize to the people on the call.

I didn’t want to keep waiting for the ideal day to take my business seriously.

I didn’t want to trade part of my soul every day just for a paycheck.