Don’t Quit Your Day Job Thumbnail

After six months of blogging, many of my fellow bloggers have dreams of being a full time blogger. Others have dreams of leaving their 9 to 5 and live off their blog or expand their blog empire. I’m here to warn you all, Don’t Quit Your Day Job!

Everything Changes

Last week, I had a lull at my day job. That allowed me to push some of my blog initiatives. However, a strange feeling came over me. One I never felt before. My passion for writing dropped. Why? I was going through an unplanned simulation with my blog being my new full time gig. Everything changed for the worse.

Passion Fades

When your passion becomes your main source of income, it literally becomes a job. With that comes all the downsides of a job. What’s the bottom line? Is my traffic growing? Are my fans and followers growing? Are my connections growing? It’s no longer about doing what you love and expressing yourself. It is now all about the money, moving and shaking, getting to the next level using whatever metric or priority that is important to you.

I almost lost sight of my passion when I focused on AdSense. This reminds me of a dear friend who was lucky enough to own a successful business based on his passion. However, there were some hard economic times where he put in long hours. He confessed, now that his passion is his job, sometimes it feels like he lost one of his passions in life.

Two Passions Are Better Than One

I’m fortunate enough to have a job that I enjoy and am passionate about. What is that phrase? If you love what you do, it really isn’t a job! However, there are days when I just want to take my job and shove it. We’ve all been there. There’s no better way to take the edge off than by working on your other passion, your blog! What’s great about this setup, depending on which passion is having a bad day, you can play one passion off the other. But if your job and your blog merge into one, when you have a bad day at work, you will have lost one of your favorite passions to dig yourself out. Congratulations. Double Whammy!

Chicken Or The Egg

Now if you could rake in like the top bloggers in Yakezie you have nothing to worry about. Income and passion are aligned so you have the best of both worlds. However, if you aren’t there yet, I strongly urge you to think long and hard before quitting your day job. Sorry for the clichés. But the grass is greener on the other side and you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. I believe, just like how we need evil to fully appreciate good. We need our day job to fully appreciate our passions.

Resource: Check out my book on how to negotiate a severance package. I was able to negotiate a six figure severance package after 11 years of work from my company. Never quit your job, get laid off instead!

Updated on 2/10/2015