Serious talk: quitting your job to focus full time on your hustle, what did/does it take for you?

I was so focused and passionate about doing my own thing that it was easy for me to take the call. And since running my own startup was my passion I was able to sustain myself on a low monthly budget for a long time. Besides this, I also had support and backup from my parents who believed in my dream.

Back in 2011 when I made the jump, here's how I thought about the security piece: + Built up a side hustle while working FT (this was before I was married or had kids, would be nearly impossible now) + Was at a tipping point where I realized I couldn't grow my side hustle anymore without leaving my FT job + Got an "anchor client" that would pay me a good chunk each month. I could take this if I quit my FT job + When I did quit, I combined that anchor client plus the other clients I'd managed on weekends and weeknights... and it was less than what I was making FT. However, without my FT job, I now had the time and energy to close the gap, and I ended up doing that pretty quickly, within several months It's not easy; rooting for you!

You're spot on with those two factors, David. A certain level of financial security is necessary to give you the confidence to make the leap. But that project has to be the right one because you're going to spend a lot of time focused on making it work. It has to become the security for the next phase of your life, to get you to your next goal. That's been my experience, anyway. Best of luck!

5k month clean

Im in this position now where I have several side projects that I think could be interesting avenues to pursue but I just don't have the time or the ability to take a year off of work to go all in. I have some side hustles that make good money, but it just takes so much to replace the insurance and other benefits that a corporate job offers. So for me it would have to be a year of complete financial security for my family at minimum, probably even 2 years.

That’s for posting this discussion - going to have a good read through all the replies

This is my 3rd startup and I see patterns now... 1. Having a significant other who can support the family while the income is low. 2. Having a right partner who can do things that I can't 3. Having the idea somewhat validated

It took a bit of realizing my workplace was extremely toxic (harder than I thought to realize. It was like stockholm syndrome took over ha). I had a client in the pipeline that stated very clearly intentions of needing future work and I had formed a great relation with. Had also freelanced on the side before during my FT position so I had other clients that I could reach out to with the great news that I'm now FT freelance! My decision was more based on getting out of the toxic workplace and less about making it as a freelancer. I still applied to FT positions after I quit, landed one and got laid off about 2 months later, but still continued my freelance motion design. I'm very privileged in that I have parents that would've supported me had things took a hard left turn and I was very fiscally responsible with my money so I had a cushion of some money (around 5k) and I also had very very very cheap rent ($500 a mo). All this is to say that I was in a very lucky spot if you ask most people. I knew I had made the correct decision once I started needing to deny projects realizing I wouldn't have been able to take on any projects of the scale I face now with a full time position, and once I starting making 4x more a month than I used to in half the amount of work. There's much more that happened in my journey to FT freelancer, lots of blessings in disguise but in all, being sure you have ducks lined up before jumping ship and being fiscally responsible is what helped me. I always used to think I had to back myself in a corner in order to give something my all, meaning quit my FT job even if I had nothing else going for me...and I realize now how childish that would've been.