10 Really Good Reasons to Quit Your
Job and Start Your Own Business
by Michael J. Katz
 It’s
been five years since I made the decision to leave my corporate
job and start my own company. No question about it, leaving
nice co-workers, a stable paycheck, and 12 years of tenure
with one company was the scariest thing I’d ever done.
And yet looking back, it was the defining moment not only
of my career, but of my personal development as well. The
fact is, I am now so enamored of blazing my own trail that
I could never go back—I am hopelessly, incurably,
unemployable.
As a result, I receive a steady stream of,
“Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” invitations
from old colleagues, new friends, complete strangers—anybody
who is considering a change, and who wants to know, “Why
should I start my own business?” This is what I say:
1. You’ll dance to your own music. There’s
a lot of noise in the corporate world. Not physical noise,
but opinions, rules, history, and a whole lot of, “that’s
the way we do it around here,” always just an inch
or two below the surface. In such a setting it’s hard
to find your path, or as I like to say, “hear your
own music.”
Once you’re on your own, you’ll suddenly begin
to hear what’s there, and the more you can hear it
and have the courage to follow it, the more enjoyable and
yes, profitable your life will be. The fact is, there is
no right way to live, to act or to grow a business.
2. You’ll never have to retire. Retiring
is a strange concept to the satisfied, self-employed person.
It implies that work is something you want to be done with,
something you wish were over. When you truly find your passion
however, the concept becomes meaningless. Do painters stop
painting? Do musicians stop playing music? Do comedians
stop being funny just because they’ve reached a certain
age? Not if they are doing what they truly want to be doing.
Sure, you may slow down or change focus as you get older,
but the game is never over, since the game and your life
will be one.
3. You’ll put your money where your mouth
is. I never planned to start my own business, and
I always secretly believed that I didn’t have the
guts to be successful on my own. When I look back now, I’m
not even sure how I managed to convince myself to leave
the perceived safety of living within the protected walls
of a large corporation. When I finally jumped however, I
was surprised by the number of friends, former co-workers
and family who remarked on my “courage.” Frankly,
I’m not any braver now than I was before, but I know
with certainty that I don’t need a corporation to
take care of me (and neither do you).
4. You’ll no longer live in two worlds.
I used to be two people: “corporate Michael”
and “home life Michael.” Corporate Michael was
less friendly, less intuitive and a lot less interesting.
I found it easy to switch back and forth between the two
Michaels, and for a long time it didn’t even strike
me as odd that I would make decisions at work based on a
completely different set of criteria regarding what was
fair, what was smart, or what was worth doing. That’s
over—I’m now one person no matter what I do,
and I have a more balanced, more humanistic approach to
business.
5. You’ll know your own power. Swept
up in the turmoil of working as part of a corporation, there’s
a tendency to blame others, wait for others, think that
others are making things happen. Working alone you’ll
realize how much control you actually have (and have always
had). That realization will give you the courage and drive
to do more things than you ever dreamed of when you saw
yourself as an insignificant part of a big machine. You’ll
have nobody else to blame, and even more importantly, you
will see how much credit you really do deserve for everything
you’ve created.
6. You’ll be free to walk away. When
you first start out on your own, you will probably be grateful
for whatever business comes your way. The thought of “walking
away” from a client may seem suicidal. It isn’t.
As your reputation grows, people will approach you, ready
to hand you their money and have you begin work. That’s
terrific. However, in some cases, the fit won’t be
there—something in your gut will tell you it’s
a bad match. You will learn that you can say “no thank
you” and walk away. Nobody assigns projects or clients
or teammates to you anymore. You and only you decide who
you work with and on what terms, and if it doesn’t
feel right you need only say so.
7. You’ll make new friends. If you’ve
been with the same company for a long time, you’ve
probably developed several close relationships. You may
be afraid that you’ll be lonely and isolated out here
in the “cold cruel world.” Nothing could be
further from the truth. Starting your own business gains
you immediate entrance into a collegial world of fellow
sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, eager to have you along
for the ride. We hold meetings, we have events, we meet
for lunch, we talk on the phone—we share ideas, support
each other and hang out together. Price of admission: a
friendly demeanor and a willingness to help other people
find their way.
8. You’ll pick the players. Wherever
you sit in a company, you’ve got people you interact
with every day—your boss, your direct reports, the
head of the legal department, the desktop support guy, the
receptionist. Hopefully you like and get along with most
of these people, but whether you do or not, you’re
stuck with each other. When you run your own company on
the other hand, you pick who’s on the team. You get
to choose your attorney, your accountant, your landlord,
your printer, your partners, your clients—everybody
in your daily life is there because you decided to put them
there. You get to choose.
9. You’ll have real problems, instead of
imaginary ones. In a corporate setting, your happiness
and success are dependent upon dozens of intertwined relationships
and handed-down decisions, any one of which can change your
world in ways you may not anticipate or even understand.
With so much out of your control, it’s hard not to
spend time “What If-ing” and worrying about
the future: “What’s my boss really think of
me? What if I don’t get put in charge of that new
project? What if they cut my budget next year?” Fear
of what might happen can become worse than the situation
itself—imaginary problems.
When you’re building your own business you’re
immersed in reality. Sure, you may have days where you worry
about paying the mortgage, but you’ll be in the game,
fighting the good fight, and no longer obsessed with the
possibility of being blindsided by an unforeseen shift in
the corporate winds.
10. You’ll find your purpose. You
didn’t come here to follow somebody else’s vision
or sit on the sidelines watching the clock tick away until
retirement. But somehow, somewhere along the way, you forgot.
Now, after so many years of following the pack, you’ve
come to see work as a place you go to earn enough money
to do the things you really want to do. It doesn’t
have to be that way. Working on your own will give you the
freedom and focus to find the exhilarating, balanced, self-directed
career you’ve always dreamed of.
One of my favorite quotes is from the book, The
Artist's Way, and I've had it taped to the
top of my computer monitor for the last five years: "Leap,
and the net will appear.” Go ahead, I’ll be
waiting for you.
Michael J. Katz is
Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue
Penguin Development, Inc., a Boston area consulting
firm the helps clients increase sales by showing them how
to nurture their existing relationships, and that specializes
in the development of electronic newsletters. He is the
author of the book, E-Newsletters That Work.
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