The One Sentence That Made Me Quit My Job At 21
By: Greta Dayanara
Tags: Passion, Entrepreneurship, Quitting A Job, Life Lessons, Rich Dad Poor Dad

“Go to school. Get a degree. Apply to big corporations. Climb up the ladder. Meet someone. Get married. Have a child. Save money. Retire early and enjoy life.”

Does this sound familiar to you? I believe this is the most common life path that our parents have taught us from an early age.

I used to believe that it was the only path I should follow and I didn’t have any other options.

I followed it. I went to school. Got my degree. Not sure what I learned from my major but hey does it even matter? The goal was just to get it so that I could move forward to the next stage of my life: work at big corporations and start making money.

But life doesn’t always turn out the way you plan, does it? I tried applying to big corporations but I didn’t get in. I thought “Hhm perhaps my grade is just average and I’m just an ordinary person. Nothing special”

After applying to more than 40+ companies, one e-commerce start-up company offered me a job but they could only hire me as an intern.

I took the job because it was related to my major. I was excited to work at a cool start-up company with young colleagues and an awesome pantry.

2 weeks into the job, I was miserable. I had no friends at work. I moved far away from my friends. I had to eat lunch alone. One time, I ate my lunch in the bathroom because I didn’t know where to go.

Awesome benefits but the job gave me ZERO happiness. I started thinking “Does life have to be this unhappy?”

So I quit my job after only a month and started another job at a restaurant I used to work part-time at.

They wanted to turn the restaurant into a start-up for F&B and wanted to give me the equity for the new branch. Doesn’t that sound exciting?

Well….. no.

It was a total mess. There was no structure. The boss didn’t even know what he was doing. I started thinking again “I should just work at a normal company with normal employee benefits so I can live a stable life”

So I quit my job after 3 months (again) and started working as a lead generation specialist for an outsourcing company.

Source: Unsplash

At that time, I was so proud of myself for getting the job. I thought “Wow finally I can work in a normal company in a big building. This is something related to my major too. What can go wrong, right?”

One month in and I was happy with my job. My performance was great, my boss liked me, awesome colleagues.

Two months in, things got a little weird at the company. If you’re not familiar with outsourcing companies, how it works is that they do their work per project. For example, Google outsources their customer service to X company. This company then hire a team to do this project.

The thing is, this project can be closed anytime without notice. This scenario almost happened to my team. My project was almost closed and my boss was worried that they had to fire some employees.

At that point, I felt helpless. I just felt like I didn’t have any control over my own job. I could lose my job anytime even though I performed really well.

Three months into the job, the project was still on but I started to hate my job.

I was getting bored at the job and thought to myself “Do I have to spend my life like this? Why do I have to ask my boss’ permission to take a day off?”

How ridiculous is that? I just want to rest for a day but I have to ask for someone else’s approval🤦‍♀️ (I know you get paid as an employee but I find it odd that I don’t even have control over small things like taking a break from work so I could sleep longer at home)

I was really unhappy with my job. I felt helpless, lost, and didn’t know what to do next. I questioned myself for feeling this way.

Why can’t I be like other people? Why do I always get bored of my job and want to quit after a few months? Is something wrong with me?

Then one day, my boyfriend wanted me to get into the habit of reading books.

The first book he asked me to read was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Source: Google Images

I started reading the book because I wanted to make him happy, but wow let me tell you. This book changed my life.

Everything started to make sense. The mindset of middle-class people vs the real rich. Wow. It made me reflect on my life, my parents’ life, and everyone around me.

I didn’t want to be like them. I didn’t want to live my life as a middle class. Making money just to spend it on materialistic stuff. Working hard just to retire early and enjoy life.

That’s not the life I want.

My boyfriend had always been an entrepreneur. He was really into business and making a name for himself.

He taught me so many things about business. I probably learn more things from him than the 3 years I learned from the university.

One day, he said “Why work so hard to make other people rich? Why not work for yourself to make yourself rich?”

Those words hit me. It was like a big slap to my face.

I finally came to the realization that being an employee isn’t my life call. I’ve never liked people bossing me around including my parents, so what made me think that I could do a good job serving other people?

The next thing I know, I started helping my boyfriend with his business. It gave me so much happiness. I finally got to do something I like. He didn’t even pay me but I was willing to work every day until late at night.

I was looking forward to the weekend because I could spend the whole day working with him. I was surprised that work could actually be fun and enjoyable.

My friends thought I was crazy when I told them my hobby was working. But I felt bad for them for not experiencing this feeling.

One day my boyfriend popped the question.

Nope, it wasn’t a proposal.

It was much much better than that.

He asked “What if you quit your job and work with me? We can work and travel together”

So the next day, I told my boss I was quitting. I told him with a big smile on my face.

That was still the happiest day of my life.

I’ve learned that life doesn’t have to be unhappy. You have the option to make your life better. You don’t have to do things you dislike for money. You don’t always have to follow the path.

Making money can be fun. Working can be fun.

Find your passion and just do it.