I hate my job and want to get out of the rat-race, how have you done it or are doing?

[ysg]

Ok, after dealing of the same old sh*t for almost 6 years now, I want out (my limit has been reached and I absolutely want to change this situation). I'm reading The 4 Hour Work Week to get going in the right direction and have decided that that is the direction that I would like to do. I have an idea of what others are doing, but would like your inputs on this and what your experiences were with this.

1. What are some of the challenges that you have encountered?
   
2. What would you recommend for someone that is just starting out?
   
3. Any pitfals to watch out for when starting out?
   

I spend at least 40 hours at work and more when you take into account things such as commuting (which can last 15 to 30 minutes one way) and getting ready for work (ironing clothes, etc.) Together, we're talking here at least 60 hours a week. Thing is, I don't mind working. In fact, the last thing that I want to do is stop working and... watch cat videos on Youtube.

Stuff that I care about:

1. I want to get into a much better shape (think Barbarian from Diablo III)
   
2. Learn a bunch of cool things about Artificial Intelligence
   
3. Get together with this one guy I know that trades currencies online to do something together
   
4. Travel (Southeast Asia, France, Japan, India, etc.)
   

All of this requires time and concentration. Coming back from work you're at times pretty tired and while I try not to collapse and sit there, I do motivate myself to haul ass and at least do something that day (even if it's laundry, at least it saves me the time during the weekend).

More than anything right now, I want out of the ACME Corp cubicle-industrial-complex. My time is too precious to address petty and childish office-politics bickering.

Lastly, I'd like some help on getting started. Suggestions?

I can do technical writing pretty well and will head off in that direction as my first stab at the issue (but don't want to keep doing this forever). I have a knack for understanding how processes work and information flows (I don't want to brag, but I'm like a savant at this, I just 'see' how stuff can go from one location to another and what happens to it along the way).

Gonna run to the gym, my legs aren't as sore anymore.

[unicornassassin]

If you're willing to be extremely poor, being a live-in volunteer can be GREAT. I used volunteer at Catholic Worker houses, and no, you don't have to be Catholic, and they're generally pretty radical and awesome people. Also there's the WWOOF program. Most of those places don't pay, but some do. You do at least get free room and board, so it's a good way to travel on the cheap or have some R & R after traveling.

There's other places that hire live-in volunteers, too, so I'd check around on the interweb.

[ysg]

If you're willing to be extremely poor, being a live-in volunteer can be GREAT. I used volunteer at Catholic Worker houses, and no, you don't have to be Catholic, and they're generally pretty radical and awesome people. Also there's the WWOOF program. Most of those places don't pay, but some do. You do at least get free room and board, so it's a good way to travel on the cheap or have some R & R after traveling.

There's other places that hire live-in volunteers, too, so I'd check around on the interweb.

I want to start a family, so these are no-go options (unless I'm missing something) in my view .

[scarletleavy]

Have you thought about starting your own business? Do you have any contacts in the industry you're interested in working in?

You mentioned technical writing and processes/information flows, what about starting your own consulting firm and freelance on those type of projects? A lot of companies are downsizing staff and outsourcing more and more types of work. I spent some time working in a small niche consulting firm that did work I had never even considered before.

I will tell you, working for yourself, especially at the beginning, can be a lot of work and very time consuming. I've never worked a corporate type job, so I can't compare my experiences, but I work in a start-up I'm building with my father and it is a ton of work and lots of travel. However, the hours are very flexible. My roommates are always so confused by my working hours, it's basically when I want to work. Sometimes I just want to take a Tuesday off because the weather is nice so I just go do something else. As long as I'm taking care of my responsibilities at work, I can set my own hours and work from home if I like. It's kind of awesome.

So pitfalls. Money. Life can be expensive, starting a business and/or going off on your own has a cost, and it can be high. Tax/financial planning advice. Depending on where you live your financial situation can become really crazy very quickly, get some professional advice for sure. Whatever you do, I recommend writing some sort of "business plan" for what you want to do. It's good to have a plan with general timelines, goals, milestones, etc, even if you don't follow it.

Just some rambling thoughts.

[nickls]

Currency trading is very risky, I wouldn't advise it as a major source of income.

I have been thinking about getting out of the office grind as well, and there's a lot of ways to go. Two that might fit are blogging and creating apps, as they can be done from anywhere on your own schedule. Be prepared for lots of people to tell you that you're crazy and you'll never make it. Blogging also tends to take at least a year until you can start making a real income. If you haven't already, check out the blogs Steve has mentioned like http://www.fluentin3months.com/, Viperchill, Chris Guillebeau, And a few others that were listed in the last blog post on living vicariously through yourself.

I think the key part that a lot of people get hung up on, including me, is taking the leap and starting something with full conviction. And you will need that conviction, because it will not come easily, and nobody is going to hand it to you. So many blogs trail off quickly, so many people give up in the beginning stages. If you are willing to stick it out and go through some hardships, it's definitely possible. And if you are putting out great content and marketing it right, people will notice sooner or later.

Good luck with getting out of the office and doing what you want.

[Ian]

It may not be what you're looking for, but I'm going to throw another alternative out there - skilled trades.

I'm not tied to a company, I don't take work home with me, and I can take my skills and tools to almost any country. If (like me) you're less interested in finding the customer, and selling the product, and much more interested in solving the problem or creating the solution, I can't think of any better place to be. Food for thought.

[oystergirl]

I would strongly suggest before you do anything that you set a time line and you build up a 1 full year emergency fun of expenses and over estimate. There are still MILLIONS of people out of work and living on unemployment and their 401k's (my family included...this is the one year anniversary of THIS lay off, we were out of work for 2 years before that too...) I am not in any way trying to dissuade you from following your heart and loving yourself enough to release a situation that you are not comfortable with anymore, but it is so important to do so from a place of centeredness and reality. giving yourself the time to set up your escape fund will give you a better idea on how much you need to really live on and may bring up options for your future that you had no idea existed.

[oystergirl]

Nickls, you made a statement that I wanted to refute and sad to say I have lived the blogging dream and at this point in the blog-history of the world it is Almost impossible to make a living blogging due to the changes in the google algorhythm since panda. Most blogs that made money in the past simply cross linked the hell out of the blogosphere to steal content (even good bloggers did this and linked to other articles), creating tie ins and having content sharing agreements was the norm. I took my blog on the alexa rankings which puts blogs and websites in order of their popularity (I am currently looking at my alexa bar and see that nerdfitness forums is at 37K which is stunning for a forum) from 2million or there abouts at start (there are about 23 million in the ranking) to 120K in one year. Doing that I was working 90 hours a week and making about 13 cents an hour. THEN google changed their algorhythm, saw shared content and basically cut my paycheck in half. I simply could not see working for pay, doing something I used to love but had grown to hate (yes, you try creating a new recipe, cooking it, photographing it and writing about it at least 5 days a week plus researching at least one variable of food information a week and then creating link opportunities with other blogs and you too will hate food!) and getting paid 5 cents an hour.

IF you can find the next BIG thing--and I think STEVE did that by finding a GREAT niche, putting up great content and finding ways to rework basic success information to appeal to nerd minds (the force and leveling up has been talked about by napolean hill and norman vincent peale 100 years ago, they called it by another name...) and he is simply a master at finding opportunities for travel, has a strong belief in his abilities, surrounds himself with wonderfully smart and dedicated and loyal friends and associates and is not at all embarrassed to color outside the lines. THIS is what you need but you need to be the FIRST or within the top 100 firsts to be wildly successful....JUST my humble opinion from the other side of the bloggosphere.

[Naturally]

I just wanted to add that if you're thinking about starting a business, think about making time to be employed by someone else part time until it is solid, even if it slows down your rate of business growth.

I would much rather have a regular income and know that my bills are going to be paid while I start my business, than jump straight in.

Entrepreneurship is TOUGH, and never more so than in this economic climate. So many people want out of the rat race. So many want to believe the 4 hour work week dream - that's why that guy is successfully selling books. Make sure you use both your aspirational and logical brains ... you'll need them both.

In fact, I think the six thinking hats is a GREAT model. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm

Best of luck.

[nickls]

Oystergirl, thanks for the reality check on the difficulty of blogging for an income. I know that freelance writing for an income can also be really tough and low-paying, as I have a friend who is a writer, and for a while he was putting up some articles on Examiner and he told me he was getting paid something like 3 cents per view.

You're probably right that you are going to have do something new and/or better than just about everyone else out there in order to make real money blogging. Almost impossible isn't impossible though, and I think there are probably other ways other than straight blogging to make money. If you are using the blog more as a sales tool for something else (like Steve), it might not be necessary to be near the top of the Alexa rankings and still make a decent amount of money.