Why you quit your job because of a dream is a bad idea

Writer and entrepreneur Jeff Goins on why great risk and great success stories are anything but fairy tales.

Not too long ago, my friend Brian quit his job as a technical writer at Fortune 500 to try something new. On the last day of their stay in the office, colleagues expressed envy and surprise. They could not believe that they had indeed made such a leap into the unknown. But in reality, Brian had been planning this moment for 10 years.

Look carefully at business books, listen to a self-taught guru who nostalgically recalls the beginning of his career, or visit an old friend who ever did it, and you will probably hear the same phrase: “I took a chance. ”

Big changes are coming slowly

I was recently asked in an interview how I became a professional writer. The author of the podcast wanted to understand what was the turning point for me. I answered:

“Yes, there was no such thing. .Nothing serious. “It’s just a lot of small changes that have come together over time.”

It has bothered me for a long time. I did not have a turning point, I did not have a dramatic statement in front of the world that changed everything. But after learning to look at other people’s successes with an open mind, I realized that slow and steady change strategies can be more common than we thought.

In 1975, Bill Gates founded Microsoft. Only six years later he signed a contract with IBM. Then it took another five years for the company to go public, which made Gates a multimillionaire, which led to his so-called “Instant Success.”

Steve Jobs needed even more time. He co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Wozniak in 1976, but the company did not have much success until 1984, when the Macintosh appeared. And even then Jobs had a hard time: he had to be fired from his company, which only after his return became a global giant as we know it today.

Another famous story: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin also gradually achieved success. They founded the company in 1996, and just eight years later their search engine outperformed the competition and turned Google into a $ 23 billion public company.

This is in line with the ideas of psychologist Carl Anders Erickson, known for his “intentional practice” theory and his “10,000-hour rule.” In his research, Ericsson showed that it takes at least 10,000 hours to become an expert in your field. In other words, before you quit your job and move on to new projects, take the time to learn the skills you need to complete them successfully.

What great hopes we have lost

And we all remain obsessed with the idea of ​​rapid change – perhaps more so than ever, given the relentless emergence of infringing tech startups and the ease of running an online business.

Why? This is similar to what we see around us: we assume that great success is the story of how one unusual person made a risky bet and won. But usually everything is completely different.

Dr. Robert Maurer, author of The Step-by-Step Paper, says that we love the idea of ​​big change, even though it does not benefit us at all – on the contrary. One reason is that our brains are actually programmed to resist sudden changes. Here is how Maurer explains this in an interview:

The brain responds to the difficult challenges of the amygdala by activating a fear center in the brain. If the test seems too difficult, if the first attempts fail, fear arises and the person gives in, often to the point of despair and to the detriment of self-esteem. If the movement towards the goal is done in small steps, the center of fear is silent and the brain develops new useful habits, repeating the same actions over and over again.

Maurer supports the use of the Kaizen concept, a Japanese word for a continuous, gradual improvement process. Instead of losing weight fast, work out for a minute a day, then two, three, and so on. Over time, this small effort can turn into something big and sustainable. As William Durant noted:

“We are what we do every day. Therefore, success is not an action but a habit.

If you do something long enough – really nothing – it becomes a habit.

Instead of jumping into the abyss …

So how can you apply Maurer’s advice?

1. Start small – really small. Most people think that big things require big commitments. But it is not. Every day in pursuit of dreams people make this mistake. They aim for the moon, but do not want to take the first step – and as a result they fail.

2. Establish the right habits. Everything from yoga to car repair needs practice. And the more you work, the easier it will be for you. Habits make it easier to work and improve us.

3. Keep in mind that by accumulating skills you will increase the demand for it. And in the end it turns out that the path to your success is not a jump into the abyss, but a reliable bridge that you build slowly and deliberately from year to year. Yes, Hollywood is unlikely to make a film about him. But you will have a much better chance of success.

Ihodl translation

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source: i can choose