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For me, I quit full time into doing something completely unrelated. Sure, it was great to be able to work on my own stuff and it did make me more productive. However, it has its ups and downs. I found that I needed a '3 day weekend' every two weeks, or else I'd mentally refuse to work on it even if I was pushing myself. Wasn't too worried about paying the bills as I was living in my parents' basement. However, the drawback of that is the same as having too much money--doesn't make you anxious enough to figure out how to get to ramen profitability. It wasn't too hard to stay on track if you're use to seeing things to the end, or if you're into what you do, or you believe in it. What's difficult is deciding when to quit. Do you have little users because your product sucks? Or because you don't know where to find them? If not, how do you? Is there something here, but you're not doing it right, or is there really not anything there? Having been through that as a single founder for a little less than two years was a lonely at times, but you just get use to it after a while. If anything, it's toughened me up a little. Overall, I think quitting your job isn't quite as scary as one may think, especially if you use your time to learn and grow. Chances are, you'll learn a lot (what, people never say, but it's one of those experience things), and you won't end up in the gutter. If I've discovered anything, it's that the world is a bigger place than you can imagine. People do all sorts of things to make money, and you find opportunities and opportunities find you as long as you do something of meaning to yourself, can teach others, and can build something and get it out there for others to use. If I had a regret these last four years, it's that I didn't learn faster, and that I didn't quit sooner. That said, don't quit willy-nilly. Have a plan and have goals. Those plans and goals might change, but as long as you know what you're going to be learning out of the experience, that's what counts. |