24 y/o Consultant Leaving the Corporate World to Pursue Entrepreneurship

[FillyCheez]

Hello everyone,

I recently joined the forum, so I guess an introduction is in order!

My name is Fil, and I am a 24 y/o guy currently working as a financial consultant in Boston and Dallas. I am handing in my resignation this week to pursue entrepreneurship full time!

A friend introduced me to TMF after graduating from college, but I decided to take a regular job in order to pay off student loans and build a small nest egg for living expenses. It's been almost 3 years since I read TMF for the first time, so taking the plunge has been long overdue.

I am excited for this transition, but I am definitely a little nervous for the inevitable low points of entrepreneurship. However, the way I see it, I'm only getting older, so I want to take a risk now to potentially live a very exciting life in the near future.

I have had several business ideas over the past 3 years, but haven't pursued any due to a combination of long work hours (sometime 80+ per week), analysis paralysis, and general fear of taking the plunge.

I have yet to decide how I will provide value to others. I am currently deciding between pursuing a data-subscription service for professionals in my field (a past client indicated that he would find value in a SOAP web service for a specific type of financial data ) or starting a drone services company to aid municipalities with inspections.

Thanks for taking a look at my intro (hope that wasn't too long!), and hope to talk with more of you soon!

-Fil

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I am handing in my resignation this week to pursue entrepreneurship full time!

Congratulations on making the big leap. Usually I'd recommend keeping the job until the business picks up to a level worthy of quitting.

How long can you make a go of it?

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Motley crue]

Welcome Fil. If it were me I'd be hesitant to quit your job until you at least have your ideas a little more fluid as MJ just mentioned. You said you're not totally sure what you want to do yet for your business, have you considered starting your own financial consulting firm since you have experience in it and (I assume) a college degree related to that field? If that's something you would be interested in pursuing you could stay with your current job to build a base of clients. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

[Waspy]

Welcome to the forum!

Out of interest, the friend who gave you the book 3 years ago; how are they doing now?

 

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[FillyCheez]

Congratulations on making the big leap. Usually I'd recommend keeping the job until the business picks up to a level worthy of quitting.

How long can you make a go of it?

Welcome to the forum.

Hi MJ, thanks for taking a look at my intro!

I have thought about keeping the job and building a business on the side, but Chapter 11 of TMF made me think that keeping the job might actually be a hindrance. In Chapter 11, you mention that you learned "more as an entrepreneur in two months than you did working 10 years at dozens of dead-end jobs". My job at the moment, while interesting at times, has devolved into a daily routine of creating Excel spreadsheets and PPT slides. I'm not learning a whole lot, but I'm still working long hours. What if instead of spending that time creating Excel spreadsheets, I was finding problems and learning how to add value?

I have previously thought about getting a job in tech sales to learn salesmanship. I might reconsider this option, as I'll be learning something useful, and I'll have more time to solidify an idea before making the leap.

As far as making a go of it, I've saved up about 5 years of living expenses.

 

[FillyCheez]

Welcome Fil. If it were me I'd be hesitant to quit your job until you at least have your ideas a little more fluid as MJ just mentioned. You said you're not totally sure what you want to do yet for your business, have you considered starting your own financial consulting firm since you have experience in it and (I assume) a college degree related to that field? If that's something you would be interested in pursuing you could stay with your current job to build a base of clients. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

Hi Motley crue,

Thanks for the feedback!

I've considered the option of starting a financial consulting firm, but the it violates CENTS in major ways (Control, Entry, and Time in particular) and as a Human Resource System, it would be difficult to manage and difficult to make passive.

 

[FillyCheez]

Welcome to the forum!

Out of interest, the friend who gave you the book 3 years ago; how are they doing now?

Hi Waspy,

Thanks for the welcome!

The friend has attempted to start a few ventures of his own, but no major success yet. He is currently working as a software developer, building skills for his next venture.

 

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[Waspy]

Hi Waspy,

Thanks for the welcome!

The friend has attempted to start a few ventures of his own, but no major success yet. He is currently working as a software developer, building skills for his next venture.

Can you learn from his failures?

Sounds like he might have some skills you could use...

Good luck

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I've saved up about 5 years of living expenses.

Wow, that fact alone indicates to me that you have what it takes to succeed. This by itself, is a huge accomplishment.

 

[FillyCheez]

Wow, that fact alone indicates to me that you have what it takes to succeed. This by itself, is a huge accomplishment.

Thank you, that means alot!

 

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[FillyCheez]

Can you learn from his failures?

Sounds like he might have some skills you could use...

Good luck

There's always opportunities for learning!

He's advised me a little on my financial data idea, so definitely a good guy to keep around!

 

[Invictus]

Welcome!

Normally, quitting to go full-time entrepreneur is quite hazardous when you're not directly working on something. Even MJ worked freelance to be able to pay rent, groceries, and...

As far as making a go of it, I've saved up about 5 years of living expenses.

Oh. Nevermind then. That changes the playing field a bit.

 

[Ronak]

Make sure you have a solid plan and deadlines in place once you make the leap. The 5 year savings is commendable, but can also be a crutch because you know you have plenty of time to make something work and you can end up wasting time because there's no fire under your butt to make it work. The drudgery of a job is a great motivator to get out.

From personal experience, I would also echo doing something, however small, to validate your idea before you make the leap. Nights/weekends, whatever it takes. Maybe even use vacation time if you need time for your venture during office hours.

My .02 cents

 

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[FillyCheez]

Make sure you have a solid plan and deadlines in place once you make the leap. The 5 year savings is commendable, but can also be a crutch because you know you have plenty of time to make something work and you can end up wasting time because there's no fire under your butt to make it work. The drudgery of a job is a great motivator to get out.

From personal experience, I would also echo doing something, however small, to validate your idea before you make the leap. Nights/weekends, whatever it takes. Maybe even use vacation time if you need time for your venture during office hours.

My .02 cents

I think this is a really good point! I think it's really easy to become complacent, so setting deadlines/creating accountability will be crucial.

Thanks!

 

[G_Alexander]

Great work on the savings, and good luck going forward! You'll do well.

I started my investment banking job knowing I was going to work for the firm for 2 years and then quit. So I too had saved ~$70,000 and had no rent expense (owned a 3-flat) when I left my job at 24. I spent 3 months on nights and weekends building my online business before leaving the job, so I already had a full ecommerce website with actual orders rolling before I ever left (along with some rental properties).

In Chapter 11, you mention that you learned "more as an entrepreneur in two months than you did working 10 years at dozens of dead-end jobs".

MJ's quote you mentioned is dead on... but If you read his quote through a different lens (knowing his backstory)... you'll recall that MJ had had enough of the cold and snowy winters driving his customers to and from O'Hare Airport in Chicago. In his "come-to-Jesus" moment (limo brokedown I believe) he decided enough was enough and began to learn how to code by picking up free books at the library. Once he was ready, he pulled the trigger and moved to AZ.

MJ's first "two months" in AZ then were packed with trial-by-fire real world coding education because he had hatched a plan before taking the leap. If you just jump... your first two months will be spent trying to decide what it is you would even like to do. I'd recommend answering at least that question before you resign.