I quit my corporate job for a more simple life

it's JT from living analog if you're used to seeing my other videos where I talk about buying and selling guitars and gigging out and all that kind of stuff this is gonna be a lot different this is just gonna be me talking to the camera so fair warning I started working for a major bank and insurance company about ten years ago I just got my four-year degree and I started out of this place in the mail room and from there I worked up worked my way into like a help desk kind of kind of hardware software support kind of job from there I worked my way into business analysis and and then in the role of technical analysts where I did a lot of coding and and building automation and and things of that nature ultimately I ended up and management and ended up being a leader a supervisor of a group of about I forget what I guess was like eight or nine folks they were all business and technical analysts my team was charged with taking care of system updates and providing automation and and things like that I was really good at the corporate world I have worked in it for 10 years I had a knack for it for whatever reason I was able to beat out scores and scores of people to get the jobs that I wanted and that's how I ended up in a leadership position making a six-figure salary when by the time I was in my mid-30s well I was really good at it the stress of the job was eating me alive it was making me totally miserable I felt unfulfilled I dealt with depression and it was really beginning to be a bad thing for me and just a couple of years ago I started really seriously considering was I gonna be able to do this for the rest of my life is this really something that I was going to be able to continue and still be a healthy human being at the same time I started looking around myself looking at all the things I had and the money I was making and started to realize that I really didn't need all of it and I really didn't I don't want to say didn't enjoy all the things that I had because I because I would but it it wasn't really bringing joy to my life I started thinking about how am I really going to be able to change the course of my life and change what it is I'm doing and a big part of that to me was figuring out how to minimize how to live on less and live with less and so I started on this minimizing journey a couple of years ago so I started getting rid of a lot of stuff it was around the same time I'm struggling with with the job that I have being unfulfilled starting to minimize that I started to really want to figure out how I could help people I got really interested in nonprofits and the work that they do it takes the place of a lot of government services and does does a lot of things that government can't do to help people and from there I started into pro bono grant writing and providing my services as a consultant being somebody who was good at business worked in the corporate world knew a lot about business proposals and how to to ask for money and things to move business forward something that I was really able to offer so I took all of those things put them together in 2018 I am now moving forward with my own consulting business and so far it's been great is there a lot of risk to what I'm doing yes and no this has been something that I've been planning out for the last couple of years and really the last year actively focused on 2018 the beginning of 2018 as being the the time when I quit my corporate job and move on to this now having said that could something happen could there could could I be at risk yeah absolutely but I wouldn't have been able to make it to the end of my life knowing that I didn't at least try and make an attempt at doing this there's been a few things that have been on my mind for a while number one I wanted a job that brings dignity to other people I really wanted to do something that would help other people not to say what I was doing in my old job wasn't helping other people but what I was primarily responsible for was making sure that system solutions were in place that efficiently brought in more money for this for this mega corporation and I I wasn't gonna continue on doing that there's just no way if I didn't figure out why I figured out I would have taken another route the second thing is I have wanted to work for myself for a long time and again this is something that I wouldn't have been able to make it to the end of my life I've heard something recently about reading writing your obituary right now what would it sound like and working for 30 years for for a corporation it's not something I'd want in my obituary now to say there's anything wrong with it for me it's it's not something I'll require that's why I accept the risk that comes with working for myself there's a lot of things that I'm already doing that kind of help with that I have my own reverb store which actually is really pretty successful I play music semi-professionally and I make money that way and I'm pretty successful with that too plus with minimizing you get rid of a lot of the stuff that you don't need and don't need to pay for in order to live the life that you want another factor that I really took into consideration of that has but I actually been bothering me for a while is if you work in the banking and insurance industry really in any role you have to know that in the next ten years things are going to look very very different there are companies that have started up out there that utilize IBM Watson and a lot of the newer technology to eliminate the need for for underwriters or call centers and things of that nature and while I wasn't doing that the work that I was doing was supporting all those people so if you work in the banking or insurance industry you have to keep that in mind your job is going to change in the next several years whether whether you like it or not and you need to look at your skills and make sure that you are you have skills that are marketable not just in your industry maybe in other industries as well and that are sustainable that will carry you into the you chew and I guess lastly the the biggest thing that led me to do this to take this leap is the fact that we only have one life to live I had heard somewhere and I don't I don't know who it was but they said something The effect of your you're born and then you die and everything in between is up to you if you want to go walk off into the wilderness you can do that just because Society and American culture or culture wherever you live says that you should do a certain thing and follow a certain path doesn't mean that you have to do that you can you can change we can all change what we do we can all follow our dreams we can all try and do better for other people and I really do think living in today's society if you have the opportunity to do that you should do it even conservative life choices can fail and often do my parents are a case in point they they worked hard their whole lives in their respective industries and got near to retirement age and we're totally screwed over by the companies that they work for so sorry if I sound preachy here but I really do believe this we all have one life to live and if you can follow your dreams if you can figure out a way to do it then do it for me like I said this took a while this took this took two years one year of trying to figure everything out and then one year of a plan that I executed fully till I got to this point and whatever it is whatever you love to do you can likely do it might mean that you have to make sacrifice for a while it might mean that you have to endure living in a smaller place or not eating out and that might only be temporary you should really take that risk and take that chance and and follow your dreams and do what you want to do for me my sanity and happiness is worth making sacrifices for and we should all ask ourselves that question as much is my sanity worth making sacrifices for and the answer is yes so from here I'll get back to my regularly scheduled so from here I'll get back to my regular content but I will check in every once in a while with video like this and let you know how things are going how I'm progressing in my journey and and all that kind of stuff if you would like to please subscribe and see you later [Music]

Channel: Thompson Guitar & Thrift

Views: 21,352

Rating: 4.908257 out of 5

Keywords: Banking, insurance, robot, automation, quit job, high salary, new job, minimize, minimalism, follow your dream

Id: EfbZunnK81A

Length: 12min 27sec (747 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2018