As with the majority of the working public, I dreaded Mondays. However, unlike others, I found myself dreading Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays too. I was literally living for the weekend and for the rare opportunities to work off site or at an event. Needless to say, I was miserable and maybe even a bit depressed – I was in a job that I mostly hated and with a manager who didn’t appreciate my talent. Shortly after being hired, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stay in my uninspired environment for long. I went on a few interviews, met with recruiters, scoured job postings and realized that getting another “job” wasn’t the answer. My next move needed to be doing business for myself.
Ironically, the word “boss” made my skin crawl, I didn’t want to work for yet another company – I just wanted to collaborate with brands that I thought were cool and live my life. And so my plan to emancipate myself began. I knew I’d have to build my freelance clientele and reduce my expenses in order to make this a realistic idea, so that’s just what I did. I marketed my services more aggressively, sent emails looking for freelance work to my extended network and met with established, successful freelancers to see how they were keeping the lights on. Being a homeowner, I knew I also had to make sure that the mortgage could still get paid, so I brought in a tenant in my extra bedroom bringing my portion of the mortgage and HOA fees down to under $600!
I was officially ready to stop leading a placeholder life every night. I prayed to the higher power to guide my steps and give me a spirit of discernment. I asked Him to show me exactly what he wanted me to do. I gave myself a deadline of my 29th birthday and with 36 days to spare, I officially gave my notice to leave my job. To my surprise, I was allowed to leave that day and was still given 2 weeks pay. Work has flown steadily and I’m constantly entertaining new business. Moral of the story is, create your gameplan, give yourself a deadline and at the end of it all, “leap and the net will appear!”
-Yasmine, HOC Contributor
