10 reasons why you quit your job in 2013

This is a translation of the sensational TechCrunch article by James Altusher , an investor, programmer, article writer, and a bit of an entrepreneur . His most recent books: I was blind, but now I see , and 40 college alternatives . Read it on Twitter @jaltucher .

People read TechCrunch because they want to create something, they don’t want to follow orders all their lives, and they want financial freedom. Let's be honest. These three points seem attractive. God bless you. I hope that when you find them, you can save them. Most people (like ME), just need to ride a roller coaster a bit, because we're dumb. But some people are smart.


Getting what you need is difficult, but for the reasons that I will explain below, you now have no other choice . There are no more myths about corporate security, about getting up the ranks, about buying gold watches, about getting applause from your colleagues. Not because the economy is bad. And because innovation and the global economy are better now than ever.

But do not expect a quick effect.

You cannot make money without selling something substantial. You cannot do something substantial without showing your imagination. You cannot have imagination without indulging in the idea of ​​creating something valuable to other people.

And now it's too late. The course of history has finally completed its next chapter. But stop talking. I will tell you why you should quit your job. Why you need to set ideas in motion. Why do you need to build a foundation for your life, otherwise in the near future you will not have a roof.


New Jabba employee

1) The middle class is dead. A few weeks ago I visited a friend of mine who was turning trillions of dollars. Not a joke. Trillions. If I called you the family he worked for, you would say: “Do they have a trillion? Yes, well? ”But what happens when $ 10 million is at 2% for over 200 years.

He said: "Look out the window." We examined all the office buildings around us. “What do you see?” He asked. - "I dont know". “They are empty! All rooms are empty. The middle class is devastated. ”And I took a closer look. Entire floors were dark. There were floors with one or two rooms, but most were empty. “All of this was outsourced or technology got the better of paper scrappers,” he said.

“Not so bad,” he said. “More people have joined the upper class than last year.” But more people are becoming temporary employees than ever, he said.

And here is the new paradigm. The middle class is dead. The American dream never really existed. It was a marketing ploy.

So it was. Fannie Mae, the largest provider of mortgage loans in the last 50 years, had the slogan: “We make the American dream a reality.” It was just a marketing slogan, always. How many times have I cried because of him. And then they destroyed this dream.

2) You will be replaced.Technology, outsourcing, the growing industry of temporary jobs, productivity growth - all this has replaced the middle class. Working class. Most of the jobs that existed 20 years ago are not needed now. Maybe they were never needed. The entire first decade of this century has passed for the CEO at their Park Avenue clubs with crying with cigars in their mouths: “How do we fire all this dead weight?” 2008 finally gave them a chance. “This is all economics!” They said. The country came out of decline in 2009. Four years ago. But jobs have not returned. I asked many of these CEOs: you just used it as an excuse to fire people, and they winked and said, “Let's just leave everything as it is.”

I am on the board of directors of a temporary employment company with $ 600 million in revenue. I see that this is happening in all sectors of the economy. Everyone gets fired. Everything is just toilet paper now.

In the furnace.


Robots - the new middle class

3) Corporations do not like you. The executive editor of a major news release called me for lunch to ask for advice on how to increase traffic on their website. But before I could speak, he started complaining to me: “Our best authors continue to put twitter signatures in their articles and then, when they get more readers, they start asking for promotions.”

“So what's the problem?” I asked. “Do you not need popular and respected authors?”

When I say “release of the main news,” I mean the MAIN.

He said: “No, we just want to make news. We do not need stars. "

In other words, his main task is to destroy the career aspirations of the most talented people, people who swore allegiance to him, people who worked for him 90 hours a week. If they worked only 30 hours a week and were a bit more mediocre, he would be happy. But he does not love you. He wants you to stay in his hole, and he will throw food from time to time in exchange for your excrement. If one of the readers is a reporter and wants to contact me personally, I will tell you who it was. But basically, they are all the same. Each of them.

4) Money is not happiness.A frequent question that people ask me at least once a week on Twitter is: “Should I get a job that I like, or should I find a job where they pay more?”

Leaving aside the question “Should I even get a job”, let's talk about money for a second. First, science: studies show that an increase in wages gives a near-zero increase in “happiness” above a certain level. Why is that? Because of the simple fact: people spend everything they earn. If your salary increases to $ 5,000 dollars, you spend an extra $ 2,000 on accessories for your car, you start a novel, you buy a new computer, a bigger sofa, a big TV, and then you ask: “Where did all the money go?” Even if nothing comes from you don’t need the above, you need something else: one more increase in salary, so go ahead, back to the corporate casino for one more turn of the salary roulette wheel. I have never seen anyone postpone surplus salaries.

In other words, do not stay at work for measured salary handouts. This will never lead you to what you need - to freedom from financial fuss. Only free time, imagination, creativity and the ability to disappear will help you create the value that no one has ever created before in human history.

5) Count right now how many people can make an important decision that will ruin your life. I do not like when one person can create or destroy me. Boss. Publisher. TV producer. Buyer of my company. One fine moment I will have to grovel in front of them. I hate this. I will never do it again.

The only way to avoid this situation is to diversify your activities when no specific person - a buyer, a boss or a client - can make such a decision that can make you rich or destroy you, fulfill the dreams of your whole life or destroy them. I understand that this will not happen in one day. Start planning to create your own destiny now, instead of letting people who don't love you control it. When you count, make sure that the number reaches 20. In this case, when you rotate the roulette wheel, the chances of losing winning numbers will be on your side.

6) Does your work suit your needs?I will explain the concept of “need” as I always do it, based on what I call “daily practice.” Are your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs met?

The only time I got a job that suited me was when I had to work a little, and I always had time on the side to write articles, start a business, or have fun with friends. At other times, I worked too hard, communicating with people I didn’t like, which constantly ruined my creativity. When you are in such conditions, you need to develop your exit strategy.

Your hands are not designed to write notes. Or send pieces of paper via fax. Or hold the phone while talking to people you don’t like. In a hundred years, your hands will rot in your grave. You should find the best use of these hands now. Kiss your hands so that they can do magic.

Someone can argue, "not everyone is given the opportunity to satisfy all these needs at work." It's true. But, since we already know that a salary will not make you happy, you can easily change your lifestyle and work to at least satisfy more of your needs. And the more these needs are met, the more you will create the conditions in order to bring true abundance to life.

Your life is a home. Abundance is the roof. But the foundation and plumbing play a primary role, otherwise the roof will fall, and the house will become unsuitable for living. You create the foundation by following Daily Practice. I say this not because I sell something, but because it works for me every time my roof collapses. My house was bombed, it was cold there and burning winds pinched my face, but I managed to rebuild everything. This is my personal experience.


Another day at work

7) Erase your retirement plan.I don't care how much you reflect in your 401k declaration. Everything is over. The myth of savings itself has dissolved. Inflation will gobble up most of your 401k. And in order to cash in on this retirement plan, you have to live a really long time doing things you don’t like to do. And finally, you are 80 and you live in a cave, leading a sluggish lifestyle, barely warming in the night.

The only retirement plan is to Find Yourself. Start a business, project or a new lifestyle in which you can forget about constant thoughts about money. Some may say, "Well, I'm just not an entrepreneur."

It is not true. Everyone is an entrepreneur. The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur are: the ability to fail, the ability to have ideas, promote these ideas, run these ideas and be so persistent that even when you fail, you learn and move on to the next idea. Or be an entrepreneur at work. "Hired entrepreneur." Take control of who you report to, what you do, what you create. Or start a business on the side. Create some value, any value, for someone, for someone, and see how this value is embedded in your career.

What other choice do you have? Staying at work, where the boss is trying to pull you down, will eventually replace you, will pay as much as just enough to survive, will dart from compliments to insults, so you will be caught on a bait by a fish, while he will pull the fishing rod. Is this your best choice? You and I have the same 24 hours every day. And so you will spend them?

8) Excuses. "I'm too old." “I have no creativity.” “I need insurance.” “I have to raise children.” Once I was at a party. A stunningly beautiful woman came up to me and said: “James, hello, how are you !?”

WHAT? Who are you?

I said: “Hello! I have everything in order. ” But I had no idea who I was talking to. Why is this woman talking to me? I was too ugly. I had to play along for a few minutes in a conversation to find out who she was.

It turned out that it was that old-fashioned woman who six months ago quit her job where we worked together. She cried, taking her things from the office when she was fired. She was always disheveled and looked about 30 years older than she actually was, and at that time her life rolled into tartarara. Until ... she didn’t understand that she got out of the zoo. In George Lucas’s film, THX-1138 (that was the name of the protagonist), everyone’s aspirations are suppressed, and all people live underground because the earth is "radioactive." Finally, THX decides that it is better to die on earth than to suffer forever under the earth where he is not allowed to love. He was not free.

He made his way to the earth, dodging all the guards and policemen. And when he got out, it was sunny there. All the people on earth are beautiful, and they are waiting for him with open arms and kisses. The pretext "but there is radiation!" Was just to keep it down.

“It's easy for you to say,” many people tell me. “One of us SHOULD do this!” And the beautiful woman in front of me also had to do this. “What are you doing now?” I asked her. “Oh, you know,” she said. "Consulting". But some people say: “I can’t just go outside and advise. What does that even mean? ”

To which I reply: "Yes, I agree with you." Who am I to argue? If someone insists that they should be in prison, even if the door is not locked, I am not going to argue. They have the right to remain in prison.

9) Moving in small steps is normal. “I can't just GO!” People say. “I have to deal with debts.” I understand. No one says quit today. Before people run a marathon, they learn to crawl, then they move in small steps, then they walk, then they run. Then they train every day and maintain health. Then run a marathon. Damn, what am I talking about? I can’t run more than two miles without a fit of agony. I'm a rag.

Make a list now. Every dream. I want to be a best-selling author. I want to reduce my material needs. I want to free myself from many troubles, the victims of which I have been all my life. I want to be healthy. I want to help all the people around me or the people who come into my life. I want everything I do to be a source of help for people. I want to be close only to those people whom I love and who love me. I want to have time for myself.

THIS IS NOT AIM. This is the installation. What do I need to do every day to practice following these guidelines? It starts at the moment when I wake up: “To whom can I help today?” I ask the darkness when I open my eyes. “Who would you like me to help today?” I am a secret agent, and I am waiting for my assignment. Ready to receive. Here's how you make baby steps. This is how you ultimately run to freedom.

10) Abundance never comes from your work. Only by leaving the prison where you are imprisoned from birth can you achieve abundance. You do not see it now. It's hard to see the gardens when you're locked up in jail. Abundance comes only when you move through your settings. When you truly improve the lives of people around.

When every day you wake up with this desire for improvement. Make your family, friends, colleagues, customers, potential customers, readers, people you don’t even know but would like to get to know better. Become a beacon of cultivation and then, when it begins to get dark, all the ships will move towards you, bringing their inexhaustible wealth.

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Do not believe me. Stay with the boss who hates you. With work that keeps you on the chain, enticing constant increases in salaries and career advancements. Stay in a culture that quietly replaces the entire middle class. This is not someone else’s mistake. These are tectonic plates of the economy, destroying a whole provincial culture that lasts almost 100 years.

Until you set yourself up for success and for everything that this choice entails, you will be locked up in prison. You will be peering into the eyes of your partner, looking for a hint of whether he or she loves you. But gradually the light will fade, the heat of another body will cool, and you will again fall asleep without dreams in this darkness.

[You can read James on Twitter @jaltucher . Or readhis blog .]