Why I Quit My Day Job

  For the past year and a half I have been working at a local Chick-Fil-A franchise. Recently however I made the decision to stop working there, not because it was a horrible experience and I couldn't take it anymore, not because I couldn't stand the people, ( I love the people I worked with! ) and certainly not because I have no ambition or plan of what to do with my life.
 
  These are all reasons that I examined myself for before I made the decision, because I wanted to make sure I was leaving for the right reasons. Not because I was unhappy or discontent, but because I felt like that is what I should do.
 
  All that said, there were plenty of challenges and difficulties I faced while I was there. As there are with pretty much anything you do. But I tried my best to learn from them and glean what I could, so that I can take those traits and apply them where they will be useful.
 
  I don't regret the time I spent there, that being said, there are some very good reasons why I decided to leave. And I'm going to outline them for you here and tell you a little bit about something called entrepreneurship! 

 I think it's important to note that I spent at least three weeks praying about this decision, which was difficult for me to make. Only because I wanted to stay because keeping a job meant security and to leave meant to trust God with my life and my future. Not to say that this is true for everyone who works, it may be God's will for you to stay at your job. But in my case I knew this was more of an issue of trusting God with my uncertainties about the future, rather than holding onto a job which meant security for me but also possibly becoming stagnant in my faith. I had to decide what I wanted, I wanted to be close to Christ and discover what this path He has for me held.

 Now for the logistics!

 As you may or may not already know I am becoming an entrepreneur, or a self-employed employee. Which is an exciting prospect for someone who just stopped spending all her time working for someone else!
 
  Let's just dig into this. Here are some very good reasons why I made this decision :

 1.) Working for yourself is very freeing with time, money and what you can do with these resources.

    It doesn't mean that you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. In fact it is very opposite. You have more time to spend on furthering yourself or your business or your relationships, etc.

  But you know the old saying " With great power comes great responsibility." ? ( Like the one from Spider man? ;) ) Well it's true, freedom means responsibility. 

   Working for yourself means being more disciplined more self-reliant and more self-controlled. Instead of having someone tell you where to be and what to do all the time, you have to decide what will work best for you in the long run. If you decide poorly, you and you alone will have to suffer the consequences and hopefully learn from it and move on.
  So yes it's more responsibility, but there is a freedom in being able to use all of these resources for yourself or your business.



2.)  We need to be furthering the free market and entrepreneurship in America.

  I believe there is something to be said for living our lives in a way that is honorable and meaningful rather than choosing to take the easiest way out of things or just accepting the first thing that is handed to us. Just because it's the most common or readily available option doesn't always mean it's going to be the best.

  A people who take what is handed to them without striving to find the truth for themselves and their families are slaves to the first person who comes a long and says that they have all the answers. Or who shows superior intelligence. As easy as it is to accept something from someone who we believe to be smarter in a certain field then we are, it's almost never the right thing to do. Instead we should be seeking out the truthful sources around us.
 
  What does this have to do with self-employment? Well, I'll give you an example.

  It is a very well known and proven fact that children prosper and find more meaning in life if we instill in them a good education. Which is why we send them to school. However, publicly run, government funded schools are not always the best option. But most of us accept them as such because no one is presenting us with "any better ideas". But it isn't our job to wait for someone to hand us better ideas, it's our job to go out and find them if we really want what's best for our kids.

 The same applies to work. We think "Oh I could never be good at that." or "I'm not smart enough for this." or in cases like mine, " I'm not crafty enough." or "self-disciplined enough."
  If your not willing to see the potential you have and chase after it, then you'll end up stuck in a job that you hate or strongly dislike and possibly never discover what you were really meant to do. Don't sell yourself short, your capable of more than you think.

  The free market is a grassroots movement in America which builds up community in our nations' small towns and big cities. I believe we put too much dependence on the government and federal run organizations. The more dependence we put on them the less freedom we have. The free market is a way to reverse that. It is using our tools and resources ( like the Internet ;) ) to create community and self-reliance among our fellow Americans. We need to learn to be strong, rely on each other and build each other up, instead of just waiting for someone to hand us the easiest option.



3.) You have something to offer the world.

  As I touched on above, everyone has a gift or a calling or something they were meant to do. And I believe that by finding a way to tie your career into your calling you are furthering the world in ways you can't even imagine. Instead of trading all of your precious time for a few paychecks a month which hardly suffice, and stifling the creativity in yourself, choose to spend your time more wisely. I mean, if we're going to have to live paycheck to paycheck no matter what, why not do it in such a way that helps us help the world around us, not just ourselves. And which could (depending on how much work you put into it) bring you out of a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

  I once heard a man suggest the idea that everyone has a creative part of themselves. Because we were made in the image of the Creator. All you have to do is tap into it and figure out what your niche is, then help it grow.



4.) Our country was founded on principles such as these.

  I am an American through and through. And I believe that we need each other in order to help this country grow and prosper. It's part of what it means to be living in a community, whether small or large. You bring what you have to offer, trade it, sell it, use it to help others, and I do the same in return. And in this way we build each other up while creating a market that will help lift us out of the depths of complacent and stagnant living.

  This has happened in any and every civilization that started from nothing. You trade to get what you need and over time we create business's that are honest and good and help further the world and ourselves. 

  We are doing this even now through the Internet, which is an amazing tool. Instead of only being able to trade or sell in your local area, we can literally sell all over the world. Some sights that help achieve this are... Pinterest, Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, Facebook and soooo many more.

  We have more opportunity now then we ever have had. Let's not squander it, but instead turn it into something beautiful.




   So there are my reasons for "quitting my day job" and seeking to become self-employed. So far I am learning from everything I do and seeking out ways to better educate myself on how to run my own business from home. Hopefully in the future I will have proof of this to show you! But let's just see what God has in store.
 
       Check back here for blogs every other day about my journey. Thank you for reading!