One of our readers, Anjan had shared his experience of leaving his salaried job last year to become self-employed. He wrote a detailed experience of his journey on one of the posts so I am reproducing his message in the form of the article here. (note that this was shared last year, but I am posting it now)
Over to Anjan experience sharing below…
I want to start off by saying that I was really inspired by that one article of yours (I am talking about Manish Article) where you wrote your experience about how you quit your job at Yahoo and finally decided to follow your dream against all odds and opposition.
I left my software job at 27
Ever since the day I read that, I knew I had to get started on my dream and drew up an action plan to free myself from this IT job which I considered as nothing more than slavery from Day 1.
So last month, I successfully quit my job at the age of 27.
How my frugal nature helped me
I was always very frugal by nature even from back in my college days when I used to do odd online jobs that didn’t pay much but I ensured I saved every penny I possibly could. I built up sizeable savings which netted me a few thousands of rupees as interest every month.
I guess that habit carried over to my professional life when I got a job. I started saving almost 95-98% of my monthly income and managed my expenses as much as possible from the interest income.
My salary was a meager 35k, so it wasn’t easy but where there is a will, there is a way.
I was fed up of boring work and Politics
So after working 5 years during which I cursed my company and boss every single day, I finally had enough of the BS and dropped the resignation notice on them out of the blue. I got the topmost rating in 4 out of 5 years of my stay there.
So they were surprised by my decision especially at a time when media is reporting massive job cuts in IT due to US Visa issues and automation.
Having to do 12 hours of boring donkey work everyday, having to work on weekends/holidays thanks to impossibly tight deadlines without any extra pay, having to beg for 5 days leave to go on a vacation once a year, having to tolerate their politics and favoritism which denied me opportunities I deserved was killing my soul from within and I was dying a little with every passing day.
Even on holidays/vacations, there was an expectation to be available on phone for support.
I started acquiring new skills and planned my exit
I just knew life couldn’t go like this forever. So I made plans to become self-employed late last year. I started acquiring new skillsets through sleepless nights and sheer hard work to switch over to freelancing with the aim to open a small business a few years later.
Once I felt ready and confident, I quit.
After being self-employed for just over a month, it feels amazing. It’s hard work without a doubt and there have been many sleepless nights to deliver projects on time but the sense of freedom is just indescribable.
There is truly something to be said for working for yourself. The best thing is my salary is not fixed anymore. The harder I work, the more I earn, so there is an incentive to work hard and increase income.
Why I planned it NOW and not in the future?
Age is an important factor. I have reached an age where I knew my parents would start badgering me for marriage within the next couple of years. So I knew it’s now or never. I had to act and I knew I had to stick to my plan no matter what may come or else it will be too late.
The fact that I love to travel was perhaps my biggest motivation to become self-employed as employers would never give you more than 5 days’ leave even if you beg. I am the kind of guy who loves to go on month-long tours.
My next plan?
Thanks to my frugal nature, I saved up enough money during my employment to last many years even if I stop working today. I plan to increase my savings to an amount that would last a lifetime by the time I reach 30.
So a few years of sheer hard work is ahead of me but for now, I am enjoying my new found freedom even though I am working super hard.
Conclusion
Congratulations to Anjan for this new journey in life and best of luck to him. I hope reading his experience would be helpful for those who need some motivation to leave their jobs to break the monotony and explore their full potential.
Let us know if you have any more ideas or points to share?