249. I Quit my Job to Start a Business
In this episode, I share my journey from the corporate cubicle to entrepreneurship. If you're a professional considering striking out on your own, or a business owner then this video is for you. I discuss the mistakes I made, and lessons I learned on my journey. I explain my realization around my values having changed and the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone. You'll discover how journaling played a crucial role in my self-awareness and decision-making at inflection points.
Join me for an insightful conversation about finding true fulfilment by aligning your life and business with your values.
Links Mentioned:
Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction: My Journey to Freedom
00:21 The Turning Point: Realizing My Dissatisfaction
01:05 Questioning Success: A New Perspective
03:14 Taking the Leap: Leaving the Corporate World
03:42 Discovering Writing: A New Passion
04:08 Journaling: A Path to Self-Awareness
05:25 Redefining Priorities: Living Authentically
05:54 Stepping Out: Embracing New Opportunities
06:27 Building Productive Insights: A New Venture
07:17 Final Reflections: Living Consciously
Ash Roy's Video Transcript (This transcript has been auto-generated. Artificial Intelligence is still in the process of perfecting itself. There may be some errors in transcription):
Ash Roy:
Hi. About 12 years ago, I chose to walk through a doorway. That led to freedom, freedom from the corporate cubicle, from the daily grind. In this video, I'm going to share my journey, which hasn't been easy, but filled with mistakes and lessons, both of which I'm going to share with you. And hopefully you'll benefit from them.
And you won't make the same mistakes I did. This is my story. Grab a coffee. Let's talk about it.
I remember it like it happened yesterday. I've got it right here in my diary. It was December the 23rd, 2012. I realized that for 15 years I'd been following a path that had become increasingly dissatisfying as I progressed.
Somewhere along the way, I had lost sight of what truly mattered. This was a point of inflection for me. You see, I'd been moving forward in my corporate career. I completed my CPA. I didn't really enjoy it, but I finished it because I thought it was a good skill to have. I completed my MBA from the top school in Australia and I loved it.
I got a distinction average. I did it part time while I was still working in banking and finance as an analyst. But the further I got, the more I questioned myself, was this what I truly wanted? And increasingly the answer was no. Now, don't get me wrong. I really appreciate the skills I gained along the way in those 15 years.
And I still use those skills to this day as I mentor other professionals who are looking to start their own business in my membership program. But 15 years into my journey, I realized that my priorities had changed. I now had a different calling and climbing up that corporate ladder and arriving at that coveted chair was no longer something that consumed me.
I didn't feel passionate about it anymore, I didn't want to further a corporate agenda I didn't agree with, I wanted to help small business owners where I could see the impact of the work I was doing. And specifically, I wanted to work with business owners who felt the same way I did and were looking to leave their professional careers behind but monetize their knowledge and skills using digital marketing strategies and information products. So, at this point, I decided to take a different path that aligned with my new values. We've often been told that success comes from climbing the corporate ladder. But what happens when you reach the top and you realize that you've been climbing the wrong ladder when that destination you've been shooting for is no longer the destination you want to arrive at?
The further down the path I went, the more restricted I felt. My creativity was stifled. I was building financial models that weren't satisfying the narrative that senior management wanted to convey to the market. And I found myself at a point of conflict because I wasn't willing to modify the models to fit into a narrative.
That, in my opinion, wasn't accurate. This moment of clarity made me question what success really meant. I was ready to explore a new, authentic direction in life.
The first lesson I learned was that success didn't mean to me what it meant to most other people, I was at a crossroads. I had to pick one path or another.
While I was very grateful for all the things I'd learned, I still am, my priorities had changed. I wanted to work in an environment where I could see the results of my efforts, not just be another cog in the wheel, I didn't want to be in a cubicle churning out Excel models, which people rarely looked at, telling stories nobody really cared about.
And this was my second big lesson that my values had changed and that it was okay to pursue different goals as a new information came to light. So, with a lot of fear in my heart and after a lot of deliberation, I started to take steps away from the corporate world. I moved from a full time permanent corporate role into shorter consulting contracts.
And between those consulting contracts, I started to pursue my true passion, writing. This would later evolve into something else, and we're going to talk about that next. By the way, if you find this video useful, you might want to check out this other video where I talked about The five biggest business lessons I've learned over the last 12 years.
But before I tell you about why I decided to pursue a career as a writer, I'd like to tell you what led me to choose writing, in particular. You see, the pressure of living a life that doesn't align with your values can wear you down, and we often don't realize it until it's too late. Things were starting to crack.
The weight of the corporate world was breaking me down. I had to find a way to deal with this pressure and create an outlet. And so, I started journaling regularly, I've been journaling for a few years prior to that, but at this point I developed a consistent journaling habit. And that led me to fall in love with writing because I realized writing allowed me to clarify my thoughts, to create an objective distance between what was happening internally and what I was putting out there on the screen.
Later I bought an iPad and Hand wrote things using an Apple pencil, which I found to be even more cathartic. Whichever way you choose to do it, I highly recommend journaling.
And that was my third key learning that journaling is one of the best things you can do over the long-term. It helps you to develop self-awareness, understand things as they're happening in your life, and presents you with a perspective and context that you can't otherwise get, you know, as I proceeded down the path, I remember that moment when I realized how easily I could be replaced, I was just this tiny little cog in the wheel, like a drop in the ocean.
The realization that the world and the company would continue on without me was both liberating and terrifying at the same time, it made me ask myself some really tough questions. Why was I giving myself so completely to a job? I didn't truly believe in why was I so committed to a cause that didn't align with my values?
Why was I not spending all this time, effort and energy in doing something that was meaningful? This realization led to the fourth lesson, which was about priorities. What were my real priorities? Now that I had these insights, what could I do with these skills I had gained? to move forward in a way that was meaningful.
The question that came up in my mind was, am I living the life I want, or playing a role in somebody else's script? A script that was written long before I was even aware that I was following a script, let alone had the capacity to understand it. And that's when I learned the value of being able to step out of your comfort zone.
After leaving the corporate world, I found myself navigating a narrow and uncertain path. It most certainly wasn't easy. There were many dead ends, there were lots of challenges, there were many moments of doubt. The biggest lesson I learned here was every time I chose to step outside of my comfort zone, a world of opportunity started to open up.
I started to see an ocean of possibilities. It just required me to step out of my comfort zone and to do that with courage, conviction, and a determination to succeed. And this was around the time I decided to start my company Productive Insights. A few years later, I established a Productive Insights membership program, which is a community of small business owners who are driven by integrity and purpose.
We work hard and we support each other. If you'd like to learn more about it, check out productiveinsights.com/membership. We'd love to talk to you to see if you'd be a good fit for us and if we would be a good fit for you. Building a business is not easy by any stretch of the imagination.
There are always challenges. When you scale from six to seven figures, your problems don't disappear. They just change. And this was another learning I had along the way. Building a large business requires a lot of effort, but maintaining that business still does require effort. Maybe not as much as building it, but you do face different problems when you've scaled your business to high revenue numbers.
And there are still problems and they still need to be solved. The truth is life is fleeting. It can be incredibly short. And as you progress further, it seems to accelerate. And that's when I learned probably the most important lesson of all. Our time on this earth is very limited. I realize that each moment is an opportunity for me to set the stage, to make every moment in this short life count.
An opportunity to create an environment and to design a future that was going to allow me to live my best life. And one of the best ways I know to achieve this is to live consciously. Journaling has been one of the most powerful ways in which I have achieved this. Our lives are ours to design. We don't need to let somebody else do it for us.
The coffee's over. I'm gonna go get another one.
I'll see you in the next video. Ciao for now.
