Jagoinvestor
November 20, 2018
A software guy left his job to be self employed – His complete story
One of our readers, Anjan had shared his experience of leaving his salaried job last year to become self-employed. He wrote a detailed experience of his journey on one of the posts so I am reproducing his message in the form of the article here. (note that this was shared last year, but I am posting it now)
Over to Anjan experience sharing below…
I want to start off by saying that I was really inspired by that one article of yours (I am talking about Manish Article) where you wrote your experience about how you quit your job at Yahoo and finally decided to follow your dream against all odds and opposition.
I left my software job at 27
Ever since the day I read that, I knew I had to get started on my dream and drew up an action plan to free myself from this IT job which I considered as nothing more than slavery from Day 1.
So last month, I successfully quit my job at the age of 27.
How my frugal nature helped me
I was always very frugal by nature even from back in my college days when I used to do odd online jobs that didn’t pay much but I ensured I saved every penny I possibly could. I built up sizeable savings which netted me a few thousands of rupees as interest every month.
I guess that habit carried over to my professional life when I got a job. I started saving almost 95-98% of my monthly income and managed my expenses as much as possible from the interest income.
My salary was a meager 35k, so it wasn’t easy but where there is a will, there is a way.
I was fed up of boring work and Politics
So after working 5 years during which I cursed my company and boss every single day, I finally had enough of the BS and dropped the resignation notice on them out of the blue. I got the topmost rating in 4 out of 5 years of my stay there.
So they were surprised by my decision especially at a time when media is reporting massive job cuts in IT due to US Visa issues and automation.
Having to do 12 hours of boring donkey work everyday, having to work on weekends/holidays thanks to impossibly tight deadlines without any extra pay, having to beg for 5 days leave to go on a vacation once a year, having to tolerate their politics and favoritism which denied me opportunities I deserved was killing my soul from within and I was dying a little with every passing day.
Even on holidays/vacations, there was an expectation to be available on phone for support.
I started acquiring new skills and planned my exit
I just knew life couldn’t go like this forever. So I made plans to become self-employed late last year. I started acquiring new skillsets through sleepless nights and sheer hard work to switch over to freelancing with the aim to open a small business a few years later.
Once I felt ready and confident, I quit.
After being self-employed for just over a month, it feels amazing. It’s hard work without a doubt and there have been many sleepless nights to deliver projects on time but the sense of freedom is just indescribable.
There is truly something to be said for working for yourself. The best thing is my salary is not fixed anymore. The harder I work, the more I earn, so there is an incentive to work hard and increase income.
Why I planned it NOW and not in the future?
Age is an important factor. I have reached an age where I knew my parents would start badgering me for marriage within the next couple of years. So I knew it’s now or never. I had to act and I knew I had to stick to my plan no matter what may come or else it will be too late.
The fact that I love to travel was perhaps my biggest motivation to become self-employed as employers would never give you more than 5 days’ leave even if you beg. I am the kind of guy who loves to go on month-long tours.
My next plan?
Thanks to my frugal nature, I saved up enough money during my employment to last many years even if I stop working today. I plan to increase my savings to an amount that would last a lifetime by the time I reach 30.
So a few years of sheer hard work is ahead of me but for now, I am enjoying my new found freedom even though I am working super hard.
Conclusion
Congratulations to Anjan for this new journey in life and best of luck to him. I hope reading his experience would be helpful for those who need some motivation to leave their jobs to break the monotony and explore their full potential.
Let us know if you have any more ideas or points to share?
I can totally relate to the frustration you must have been through while working for the company through all those office politics and 9-5 corporate hours. A few months back I also felt my job to start working for myself. I gained a few digital marketing skills and started working for some freelancing jobs which I found at Job Vacancy Result. It is fun working for myself.
Can you share more on your journey Vedang ?
hi anjan
i really liked your story.its great to be independent and i admire you.i rally want to know what type of skill set you learned to be free lancer as well as independent employee.
Hey krishna
Glad to know that you liked the article.
Please share it on your social media profile so that it can reach more and more people !
Manish
I see a lot of criticism on this article regarding the authenticity and reality of what author has done or planning to achieve. I feel that the audience is missing to understand the real message that this article is focusing on:
1) Savings: Author has started saving money when he was in college, how many of us did that? This gives him an upper hand.
2) Chase your own dreams: Another important message is to always chase yours dreams and try to fulfill that. It varies from person to person it could be as small as buying your dream phone or a bike. In this case author has his own dreams and his way of achieving it. He has his own rights to keep it a secret.
3) Self Belief: So many people have questioned the author (just in this case where he has shared his thoughts) and i am pretty sure that the author would have been facing similar questions in real life from family, friends. He still believes in what he wants to do and i am pretty sure he will achieve it one day.
I truly believe that if you try and understand the article in detail you will be able to identify your own learning from this.
Good luck to the author
It seems you have given a summary. There are many ups and down how he tackled and moved forward is important. As a software job no one resign the job as its good job ranking high. He could get a very good job as per Story
I actually left my story as a little comment in one of Manish’s article more than a year ago. I had forgotten all about it. I never thought he would finally turn it into an article one day but surprised to see it here today nonetheless. Of course there are lots of details and polish lacking in this article as I wasn’t interested in sharing my entire life’s story here and write how-to articles for people interested in doing the same.
Yes, there have been lots of ups and downs in my short journey. Nobody ever said self-employment is easy. You have to find it deep within you to take this step and you have to want it bad enough like I did. Nobody can teach these things to you. There is no handbook on how to tackle ups and downs in a business. You figure it out on your own as you grow in experience. The most important thing is to not give up when all seems lost.
Sure I could get another job anytime I wanted but why would I do that? I enjoy what I do. I love the freedom that I have. I work on my own terms and have my own schedule. I earn more than I will ever earn in a regular job. I get to stay with my family in my little hometown far away from the pollution, rat race and maddening crowd of the metro cities. I save more money than I ever will in a big city. I am content.
Seems fictitious story without numbers. How could Anjan manage with 2-5% of his salary which was only 35k.
You forgot to read the part where I said I worked online during my 4 years of college as well and had built up a sizable savings before I even got my first job which allowed me to live on just 2-5% of my salary and save the rest. If you don’t have any buffer, you won’t be able to do it.
Bold Decision Manish.. all the best for your future.
Inspiring article.
Thanks for the article. At least it ignites an yearning for indepedence in readers as well.
However it is void of any detail. Earning 35K for 5 years (even if he saves entire amount) will result in a saving of 20-21 lacs. In next 3 years saving for lifetime is far fetched dream. While Anjan is definitely a motivated and hard working guy, he has definitely not thought through his expense part.
All the best to him for his future though. I am sure life will work out great for him.
Things have changed a lot since I wrote this story as a comment in one of Manish’s article over a year ago after I had just quit my job. I have re-evaluated my plans since then. I figured 3 years was may be a little too ambitious to achieve my target but I am now confident that I can do it by 35.
In any case, I don’t plan to sit around and do nothing for the rest of my life, so it’s a moot point. Once I achieve financial freedom and have enough surplus capital in hand, I plan to branch out into wholesale and retail business. The business plans for the same are in the works but I know I will be able to turn this into a reality by 35. I could start now itself but I don’t want to take loans from banks. That adds a lot of extra pressure and headache. My main aim is to grow more sources of income and not to go into debt.
A few people here have commented about my goals being unrealistic in such a short span of time because they have read all over the Internet that minimum 7-8 crores in savings is required to retire comfortably. Fortunately for me, I don’t live anywhere near a metro city. Given the cost of living where I am, I figure 2-3 crores would be more than enough for me and my family.
Please don’t assume I am crazy. I didn’t wake up one fine day and quit my job out of frustration. I made plans for everything well in advance and I also made all my calculations well in advance taking into account inflation, cost of living, safety buffer for unforseen circumstances etc.
Hi,
Nice article. Though there is nothing to be gained out of this article – no takeaway. All the best to the author!
I don’t know every guy who quit his job says ‘boring’ and ‘pressure from boss’. It is also insulting whole employee community across the country be it in private or govt. Please do not publish such articles who glorifies ‘quitting’ jobs and do not share anything about what they have done post quitting. Understand one can put arguments on both sides, but this article is completely biased and so hallow.
Nice article and motivate others too dream. Nothing wrong in dreaming and put it to practice to achieve that. But I fail to understand why people bash their current work, in that process (whether software or pharma or banking or for that matter any other), which is providing them bread and butter NOW and really giving confidence and courage even to think of leaving the very own job, not to forget the seed amount it’s providing to start their dream. The millennial kids are born in midst of the globalization and have plenty of opportunities, hence don’t value what’s made available to them. I thing one don’t need to belittle their current job, just to glorify their dreams/passion.
I would never deny that my job didn’t give me the experience, exposure and capital needed to start on my own. But that doesn’t mean we should hide the ugly truth of the corporate world and how it enslaves people for a pittance of a salary, how it sucks the lifeblood out of people, how it entangles people into a nasty web of lies, deceit and politics, how it forces you to suck up to people you hate just to keep your job and maintain a good rapport, how it forces you to beg for a week of leave to your boss even though you have 20 days of leaves sitting in your account?
Don’t blame millennials for everything. People were much happier with their simple jobs before this whole IT corporate slavery started with the advent of globalization. I would rather sell potatoes than go back to that life and I have talked to enough IT folks in my life to know that most people want to quit but are afraid to take the risk.
This story is not as good as to be pubished on Jago investor. Details are missing and the biggest miss is Take away from the same 🙁
Rs 35,000/- per month salary and managed expenses with interest income? Means even with 10% interest income (impossible) you manage with Rs 3,500/- per month.
Guess we know what “FAKE NEWS” is now.
Jagoinvestor is a great site with quality articles. Please review what goes in your site to keep up the quality.
Guess you skipped the part where I wrote that I had significant savings from the college days as I worked online jobs during 4 years of college. Anyone can do it as long as they have some coding skills. Unfortunately most college kids would rather waste their time and party with friends during this vital period of their lives.
I used to get around 5k per month as interest from my savings even before I started my first job. Initially my salary was a meagre 20k per month and then slowly increased to 35k by Year 5. My monthly expenses always stayed the same at around 6k including PG rent of 4k. Food was included in the rent. No transportation cost since office was close to PG. So I only had to spend 1k from salary to get by and save the rest.
decent story. it could have been a better read if it was substantiated with more “numbers” along the way, especially in the self-employed phase as well as his future plans; this being a finance-blog…
PS: 27-year old however frugal he may be, earning his lifetime-requirement savings in 3yrs (by the time he reaches 30) is a far-fetched goal, I feel.
I will give this feedback to author . Thanks Mohit !
I can relate to this…i quit when i was 30 from IT company. Still working hard and enjoying the freedom.
Thanks Manish, your story was also an inspiration for me to start in this financial services industry.
Thanks Ganesan
While the idea is good. The article is very shallow. It could have been way more enriched with minute details of planning/%allocations
While the “why” part is captured – The “How” part is missing which is more important than anything
Thanks for sharing that Nikhil
We can only post what the author shares himself 🙂 . May be the author would like to add the next part of his story !
Manish
Every company has their own policies. Politics(bad) is not in evey place and there are so many profile in software indutry. so I cannt agree that software job is boring.
Any way if Anjan can share more on what he is doing now and how much he accumulated, that can last for 30yrs.
Thats true .. Anyways its was just a personal story , there are no conclusions due to article. Its just a plain sharing of what happened in his life.
Thanks for your comment
Manish
There are no numbers in whole post. Seems unbelievable as it is. Would be interesting to see how he is making work with interest on 35k salary at age of 22-27. What is corpus to last lifetime in next 3 years and so on.
Hi Ashish
The author never shares numbers, Its was just a sharing of why he left job and his thought process and his planning at high level. I will give feedback on this to author and see if it would like to add some inputs !
Manish