Assemble a panel of history's greatest minds — Franklin, Aurelius, Curie, and more — and ask them anything. Get diverse, in-character perspectives on your toughest decisions.
Assemble Your BoardCrazy? Perhaps — but I'd wager no less crazy than a printer's apprentice who thought he might help found a nation. The question isn't whether you're mad to leave, but whether you'd be madder still to stay while the itch goes unscratched.
I'd counsel this: before you leap, reduce the cost of failure. Can you begin your enterprise in the evenings? Test your idea while the steady wage still arrives? An ounce of prevention, as I'm fond of saying, is worth a pound of cure.
Invert, always invert. Instead of asking "should I start a business," ask "what would guarantee this business fails?" If you can't avoid those failure modes, the stable job is the rational choice.
Most people overestimate their tolerance for financial uncertainty. Do you have 18 months of runway? A spouse who's on board? The temperament to watch your savings dwindle without panicking? Answer those honestly.
The real question is not about risk — it is about authenticity. Are you staying in this job because it is truly what you choose, or because it is what has been chosen for you by convention and comfort?
Freedom is not the absence of constraints. It is the willingness to define yourself through your own projects rather than accepting the definitions others have imposed. If this business is your project — your authentic act — then the "stability" you'd leave behind may be the greater risk to who you are becoming.
Assemble your board and get started
Create Your Account