Personal | A Letter to My Past Self After Quitting My Job

The hardest, choice I had to make in my life so far was leaving my comfortable salary paying job and running Quaint+Whim full-time. I put so much of my identity into my job, and I worked SO hard to get it, that leaving made me feel so much like a failure, and that the part of myself I related to so much as a developer would be gone forever.

Today actually marks my first day as a full-time entrepreneur. So I wanted to write a letter to myself a year ago today.

My darling, you officially quit your job, signed all the papers, and you don’t really know how you feel about it, you have no idea what you are going to do, but it’s okay. You wake up more panicked than relaxed…you are SO worried, so you start working really hard with no reason or direction.

The next few weeks you’ll keep making, doing, and pushing. You’ll wake up and fall asleep with your laptop. You’ll be running really fast and feel like you aren’t getting anywhere, but it’s simply because you didn’t sit down to create a reason or destination.

Money is just as much of a pain point and just as hard to figure out as when you had your salary job. You are going to need to learn to lean on people and become a little less introverted+independent. You cannot figure out everything by yourself, and you’ll have a group of amazing creatives that will help you with that. You totally get your heart broken and it is the worst, but you (are) survive(-ing).

Just about every negative thing you worry about happens, but you figure it out. You start going on prayer walks in the morning and spending some "me time" before you get into your inbox. You have the hardest time with that routine, but it makes you so much happier and efficient with working when you do.

Where I use to sit and dream about one day making Quaint+Whim my full-time endeavor.

TahJah you really are a pure-bred entrepreneur…it was worth it, it’s hard…it’s scary…and you spend more time crying, angry, and frustrated than you’ll like to admit, but you are so much happier. You work on some pretty amazing projects. The skills you learned from that job put you in a really great position and gives you the confidence to tackle projects you might have passed on.

People really start to get your voice, because you are finally getting it too. Your clients are so so so amazing, and they become a part of your life. By letting more people in you begin to change a lot of lives, and they in return change yours. You have SO much more to figure out…you still feel just as lost as when you started, but you survived one year. And you don’t ever want to look back.

If I could give you some advice I would tell you to stay true to yourself. People are going to be so disappointed about your choice, and not really get it…but all you know is that you couldn’t breathe and now you can, and that’s all that matters.

When times get hard read and re-read and write and pray to Luke 12:22-34. Stop worrying so much – you do a great job kid!