The Great Resignation: Why successful people quit their job
Intro
What is The Great Resignation, and why did so many people quit their jobs?
According to a CNBC article from early 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 4.3 million people quit their job in January alone.
To some suit-wearing upper-management employee working in the hearth of your local downtown tower block, this resignation came out of nowhere.
I can hear them complaining to each other, "We're finally over this COVID lockdown thing. Why do people need to quit their job!? Let's get back to work!"
After all, some people are wired differently, and if they climbed the corporate ladder to the top of their field, that shows that they were able and willing to sustain high levels of stress and sacrifice personal and family time.
But for the majority of us, living a fulfilling life does not include working around the clock and spending a good chunk of your "free" time stuck in lengthy commutes while eating take-out behind the wheel.
And if your mind automatically associates seeking more time off with a lack of drive, financial goals, and work ethic, you may still be stuck in the 1900s time-for-money paradigm.
Changing your habits requires spaced learning.
My Story
See, I started my career in inside sales well over a decade ago, and I, too, worked 16-hour days, six days a week.
I did that because I wasn't aware of any alternatives yet.
But then, in the mid-2010s, I got laid off from my corporate marketing job, and I had to reinvent my career (and life.)
By the way, this is just one article of a long series on lifestyle design and remote entrepreneurship for professionals and solopreneurs that want to scale their lifestyle businesses.
So if you find this article useful, bookmark it and come back to visit us.
If you want to know more about my story, click here to tab that page out.
But for now, let me show you why quitting your job was the best thing you could have done for yourself and your family:
Better opportunities to make money
More time for self-care
More time with family and loved ones
Lifestyle upgrade.
Quitting is not easy, but when you have so many better opportunities lined up, it becomes a no brainer.
Better opportunities to make money
It doesn't matter how you look at it; working for yourself allows you to make more money, and it's safer than working for someone else.
See, I was born in the '80s, and I initially got sold on the idea that working in an office was the ultimate career goal. "You need a paycheck!" they used to tell me.
But little by little, over the course of 30 years, I saw most of those people either getting laid off or settling for insane schedules in exchange for a marginal increase in salary (or, even worse, to avoid getting fired.)
Sure, being an entrepreneur doesn't automatically make you rich and happy.
It's hard work, and it could be very stressful too.
But, if you look at how many hours you would spend in an office, and you took that time to work on building your brand, refining your marketing, and optimizing your processes, it won't be long until you'd be making more than you did you at your full-time job.
But the beauty of entrepreneurship is that you'd be just at the beginning.
Once you replace your full-time income, you can get creative and set up as many income sources as you want, most of which can be totally automated.
Talk about financial stability! You'd never achieve this level of security as an employee.
If you are resourceful, you won’t lack opportunities to make money and live a better lifestyle. In that case, quitting is actually the safer option.
More time for self-care
This is another sore topic, especially for those that have a family to take care of.
That's because when you are working as an employee, between commuting, getting groceries, making dinner, and doing a few chores around the house, you may not even have time to take care of yourself (no, your 2-minute shower to wash off the sweat from running around all day doesn't count as self-care.)
To stay happy and productive, you must set up an actual self-care routine that resets your body and mind.
To show you what I mean, here's my routine from my book that's coming out on January 15.
Moisturizing body and face, trimming my beard, doing my hair (15 minutes)
Drinking a cup of herbal tea and reading 20 pages (60 minutes)
Listening to an audiobook, working out - HIIT, and having a cold shower (20 minutes)
Meditating and stretching (20 minutes)
Drinking a big glass of water and taking my supplements (5 minutes)
See, for the average employee with kids, incorporating a two-hour self-care routine in their schedule would be close to impossible.
But as a lifestyle entrepreneur, not only do you have the time for it, but you must do it!
You have to take your foot off the gas and recharge.
If self-care is not at the top of your priorities, you will burn out no matter what. So you might as well find an occupation that allows you to treat yourself better.
More time with family and loved ones
My wife and I have been living abroad for a few years because we wanted to spend time with all our friends and family.
We lived and worked pretty much anywhere in Europe and many places in North America.
Our friends and relatives know how flexible we are, so whenever they plan on traveling somewhere, they let us know ahead of time so we can meet them at the destination.
That's how we got to work from a sailboat in the Mediterranean, Greece, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Cuba, and Canada, all in the past few years.
Also, keep in mind that we went on many of these trips with our baby, so you have no excuses!
But what about when we're at our home?
Maybe you don't even have family members as scattered worldwide as we do.
In that case, let me share with you what my current at-home schedule looks like.
5:00 am to 7:30 am: Work (writing time) - 2.5 hours
7:30 am to 8:30 am: self-care - 1 hour
8:30 am to 11:00 am: daddy-daughter time - 2.5 hours
11:00 am to 1:00 pm: Work - 2 hours
1:00 pm to 2:30 pm: Lunch and family time with my wife and daughter - 1.5 hours
2:30 pm to 6:00 pm: Work (client calls and meetings) - 3.5 hours
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm: Dinner and family time with my wife and daughter - 3 hours
9:00 pm to 10:00 pm: self-care - 1 hour
When you run your own lifestyle business, you can prioritize what's important to you.
That's why I spend at least 7 hours a day with my daughter and almost as much with my wife.
We go to the park, play music, dance, take care of our garden, go shopping, skate, swim, we go for runs, and much more.
Trust me!
Once you get good at managing all your newfound family time, you won't ever have a dull day again.
Then I also take Thursdays off, so on that day, my daughter and I go on full-day adventures and day trips to the beach, farm, and other exciting spots.
Now you can see the real implications of running a lifestyle business.
Sure, the money and the online presence make you feel good about yourself, but what you do with your free time makes all the difference.
Money is not enough to make you feel fulfilled. You need relationships and the time to nurture them.
Lifestyle upgrade
Before I started my business, my wife and I both had good-paying jobs.
Brianne was in the top 1% of all the sales reps at her company and made 6-figures just a few months after starting her career.
So money was never a problem, but what we did with that money was a waste.
When you are too busy to enjoy your time, you waste cash on things that don't make you truly happy.
For example, my wife and I used to treat ourselves to fancy steak dinners every couple of weeks.
Brianne was busy with sports during the weekend, so we used to go out during the week.
On average, we'd spend $600 (the food was amazing,) but often, we'd be too tired or busy to enjoy ourselves.
Plus, since we worked late, we always had to choose restaurants close to the office or our house.
It always felt like we had to compromise on location or time, even when we paid a premium.
But after becoming my boss and working remotely, we completely flipped the script.
We still treat ourselves to fancy dinners, but we take our time and turn the experience into a full-day (or even a weekend) adventure.
We research small towns we'd like to visit, book wine tours, go sightseeing, hang out at the beach, and much more.
And best of all, we're not in a rush.
We're totally present with one another, so much so that I often choose to leave my phone at home!
And when we don't want to eat out or go away for a weekend trip, we have a bbq at home by ourselves or with our friends and family.
We go to the local market in the morning to pick up fresh ingredients, take our time to marinate our food, and use spices and herbs from our garden to season all our dishes.
All this while our multiple sources of income keep on working for us in the background.
See, what we do is not out of this world, but the fact that we can do it multiple times a week without ever having to worry about money, time, or work-related headaches makes this lifestyle priceless.
More time for yourself also means more time to craft an environment that’s conducive to focus, relaxation (and good times.)
The Great Resignation is a strong message to employers.
Times have changed, and the social contract that brought us here is not enough to take us where we want to go.
Don't get me wrong. I am grateful that, unlike my grandparents, I got to work in a climate-controlled office while drinking unlimited coffees and sitting on my personal Herman Miller.
But you and I know that life is more than that.
Out of the millions of people who quit their jobs, some will become entrepreneurs, while some will get back into the labor market, but they'll find jobs with a more flexible schedule and location freedom.
But only a tiny percentage of them will settle again for a lifestyle they're genuinely not happy with.
So if you are an employer or an entrepreneur planning on hiring a team, your best bet is to improve your contracts and advocate for a better working environment.
Because if you don't do it, you'll starve for talent.