My Point Of No Return: I Quit My Job

Today, March 1, 2011, was my point of no return: I quit my job. It feels great to write those four words, but it is also terrifying and exhilarating and scary and exciting and surreal and unbelievable and, in many ways, indescribable.

I’m listening to Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” as I write this. Her words, “It’s a new dawn / it’s a new day / it’s a new life for me / and I’m feeling good,” best describe what I feel right now.

A new beginning.
A fresh start.
The precipice of something exciting.

Yesterday, February 28, 2011, was my last day at my suit-and-tie corporate job. Over the past dozen years, since age eighteen, I’ve spent nearly 80 hours a week working my way up the corporate ladder at a large telecom company in the Midwest—from retail
In the last few years, I won back-to-back President’s Club trips to London and Hawaii for outstanding sales performance. I hired some of the best people in the industry, people who quickly advanced throughout the organization (including Ryan, who runs this website with me now, as well as Stan, one of my closest friends). And I was was poised to become a C-level executive before age 40. In short: I had it made.

So, when I announced my departure last month, it seemed illogical to nearly everyone: dozens of employees asked where I was going and whether they could come with me. When I told them I was changing my life’s path, many people didn’t understand. After all, I was living the American Dream, wasn’t I? A six-figure salary, a huge suburban home, several luxury cars, and all the stuff to fill every corner of my consumer-driven lifestyle—who the hell walks away from that?

Of course, I’m not trying to impress you, dear reader, with the details of my supposedly “impressive” career. If I thought that my “accomplishments” were impressive—if I were impressed by my lifestyle—then I wouldn’t’ve left in the first
I care about many of the people there and enjoyed much of the job itself.

So my “screw you” is not to my former job at all. I’m not quitting a job—the job is not the point. Instead, I’m walking away from my old lifestyle. I have to stop living the lie, and start living the life.

How will I earn a living? To be honest, I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve spent the last two years working hard to reduce my bills substantially and pay off massive amounts of debt. Yes, I’ll still need to earn enough money to keep the lights on, but making money is no longer a priority. I need only work to earn enough money to live—not live to work.

My initial plan is to be a part-time barista at a local coffeehouse and earn enough to pay my bills—food, rent, utilities, insurance—while writing full time. Who knows: maybe this writing thing will yield a full-time income one day. But even if it doesn’t, that’s okay because I’m passionate about writing, especially literary fiction. (2012 UPDATE: I’m happy to report that, only a year later, I’m making a full-time living as an author. Even though I earn considerably less than my corporate salary, I also think about money differently these days, and I’ve never been