I jumped off the corporate world recently and turned into an Entrepreneur. It certainly needs a lot of mental preparation specially when you have decent pay check driven monotonous life. I graduated from most premier engineering college in India and immediately secured a job. I loved my job profile , but my career so far was only moderately successful for various reasons. I found office politics too annoying and work assigned to me wasn’t based on my qualifications but influenced by others.

I decided the time is now as soon as me and my friend came up with a business plan again some time back . It wasn’t the first time we came up with one. so far I have been delaying actions waiting for the right time. The right time to execute plans came only when I said lets do it now .

Thankfully my parents soon turned positive about it .

I definitely agree that entrepreneurship is a way of life. It represents proactively going about your dreams or whatever it is that calls to you and taking control.

It applys to any pursuit of dreams, whether you’re a cook, musician, actor, comedian or author. They go through a period of honing their skills. During that time you do it for the love, and the enjoyment is all you will be getting for awhile. Then your skills build immensely if you’re maintained momentum and soon you take off.

I also agree that it’s better to start earlier in life. You have less to lose, especially during setbacks. They’re blank slates.

In any area of life, there will never be a perfect time for anything. You will never have all the information needed at a given time to make a perfect decision. they say there is no perfect time to be in a relationship. I think there are better or worst times but the only time you have is now.

After graduating high school back in 05, my family and I went homeless. It was a life-changing experience as I going to Cal Poly Pomona set on the corporate path. The experience taught me that my life has been too hard to not follow my dreams and become happy. I recently made the change to follow my childhood dreams of becoming an actor. It has nothing to do with the fortune or fame, but all to do with creativity and the challenge. You’ve got to grow as a human being to become a great actor. Like you said in one of your comments, “we are made to create!”

Coming from a “financially challenged” family.I used to worry about becoming another starving actor, but then I realized if I didn’t follow this path, there will be a lot of regret in the future. I also realized it’s nearly impossible to fail if I persist and learn from my mistakes. There are lots of actors that don’t make it but I can’t look at that and let it discourage me. Perhaps, there is something they did wrong, overlooked,or are not taking notice of.

I look at it like American idol: a lot of contestants but a lot aren’t aware of their skills, strengths and weaknesses.

I also learned from reading some blogs over at Steve Pavlinas site to look at security internally, rather than externally. Because your physical/external/material reality with never be secure. I may lose everything but when you hit rock bottom it’s not the end. The end is when you run out of time. But as long as I can take action I can be back where I was in no time, that is if you’re internally secure, meaning that you’ve invested time building your skills and knowledge and made yourself invaluable. It’s like comparing someone that just won $1,000,000 to someone that has an understanding of the principles of money and has earned $1,000,000. The winner should be very afraid.

Long comment, I know. Once again, great post

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I have an exact answer for you:

If you are at a point in life where you have very little to lose and you have very little responsibility on your shoulders like a family or a mortgage, quit your job and run a startup. Live cheaply, and work your butt off so you can set up that day when you want to take on more personal responsibilities, you will be well set.

If you are at a point where you need a full-time job to support your family and mortgage or anything else, what you need to do, assuming entrepreneurship rocks for you again, is to work your full-time job during the day, and work on a startup night and weekends.

Because to be honest, you have 168 hours a week. A 40-hours a week job is not really “full-time”, it’s not even “quarter-time”! If you work 40 hours a week, and sleep for 40 hours a week, you still have 88 hours a week to do whatever you want! This is where you stop watching TVs, stop surfing the net, and stop killing time. Go start a company and build your legacy.

I hope my answer helps! Take care!

I’m curious on your thoughts on this though:
Let’s agree that entrepreneurship rocks. Yes it’s tough, but to us at least, it’s a life worth living – moreso than the corporate life.

What would your advice be to others who are in corporate jobs they dislike? I mean – what if they’re doing it to support their family, and that’s their main goal in life and don’t care what it takes to do so? Sure maybe everyone has at one point said “I want to own / launch my own business” – but how widely do you think that’s advisable?

I’m sure you can think of good people whether in their 20’s or 50’s in corporate who don’t exactly get a rush from their job, but find balance elsewhere (be it happy hours or sports or family). What do you say to those people? Do you say “just quit your job and follow your dream?” or “suck it up at the 9-5 and make sure everything else around your life compensates?”

I only ask and give you a little pushback because it’s an answer I can’t seem to find myself. I left the corporate gig a year and a half ago to start this crazy ass entrepreneurship life, and sometimes wonder “if I would have stayed, could I have build in other means of happines in my life that kept me fulfilled?”

Maybe there’s no answer here, but I’ve been keeping this on my chest and thought you may understand and be able to give your thoughts on it.

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! It sounds like you had an exciting business going on! Life does make you choose between family and passionate work. I’m glad you executed and got to a good milestone in general though!

Maybe one day you will live the entrepreneurial lifestyle again!

I’m interested in knowing: What did your parents and family think when they found out you wanted to be an entrepreneur instead of going to graduate school after college?

Sorry for the late response! It got buried from my other comments.

Thanks for the the encouragement!

I agree. The road of entrepreneurship is tough, but it is very meaningful. Never give up and one day you will achieve your dreams!

People depend on luck, but like you said, there is no luck but what God determines us to do.

God Bless and take care!