My Experience In a 9-5 Job & 3 Ways To Quit and Do What You Love.

Don’t believe the hype, don’t quit your job just yet. Be strategic about it, it’s very easy for someone who’s already a successful entrepreneur or someone who doesn’t have context about your life to tell you to quit your job and become an entrepreneur. If there’s one thing I try to do with my videos, blogposts and content generally is to always ensure that am saying it as it is and am keeping it 100, never over hyping and never over simplifying anything. Keeping it white and black.  Talking about keeping it 100 – even though I said not to quit your job just yet, I think having a 9-5 job is already a stressful space to be in and if you do not enjoy what you do at your job – this makes it an even harder space to be in. The truth about having a 9-5 job is that during the hours between “9am – 5pm” you have no power over your time, you are literately owned by the company and during those hours there is a very high chance that your actions (if you are a productive employee) is always geared towards the enhancement of the business you work for and not towards you as a person ( this is arguable, I know ) , The control of your time isn’t in your hands, it’s in the hands of your boss and company.

Ever heard the saying “The man who has control over his time has control over his life?”. There is no better feeling than waking up everyday knowing you are a free man, you have power over your time and your life. Trust me, I say this often and I will say it again – even if I don’t make as much money as I would make in a 9-5 job or any job for that matter, as long as am happy and am free and am doing what I love and enjoy doing – this means a lot to me and its worth more than just money.

Entrepreneurs know this feeling and can relate with what am talking about. As long as I stay steadfast and continue to improve myself and my business – I will hit it and achieve everything I have set as my goals in life. Am confident about this.

The man who has control over his time has control over his life?

[ad name=”HTML”]   I tried the 9-5 thing once, it was crazy. I only lasted 31 days. The funny thing was that I was doing what I loved, the company was based in one of those fancy buildings in the heart of London (Canon Street), the office space was beautiful, the employees and business owners were somewhat good people, the office had a very social environment and the pay was good ( I mean GOOD ) and to top it all up I was working just 3days a week. Monday , Thursday and Friday.

But I still couldn’t breath, to be fair it wasn’t a “job job” per se. The company is a multi national firm and they had a very very very very wack online presence, their website sucked and it was affecting their brand. So they wanted to re-brand and get a more modern, professional and clean outlook to their Brand. So they reached out to me, after seeing my CV- they were blown away I had achieved so much and had so much experience at that age (I was 22 years old) and we met for a cup of coffee and that was i got in. I normally work with my clients from the comfort of my home office but for this company, the case was different.

Since they were a million pound company – they wanted me to be part of their team, see their operations, understand their culture and use my observations to build an outstanding online presence for them. They proposed that I worked from their office for 3days a week and do my own thing the other days of the week from my home. It sounded cool to me, I was still fresh in London, they seemed like a great team and I felt it would be my opportunity to see how the job life was – my time to have a taste how it feels like to have a 9-5 job. So, I accepted their offer and started the next day.

Remember I said – I loved what I was doing, I was basically their creative guy – in charge of their brand identity, the re-branding of their website and everything in between, that’s my bread and butter and that’s something have been doing for years now – I enjoy doing it but I still couldn’t breath like I said – the fact that I had a time to be at the office (8:30am), a time to go for lunch break (12pm-1pm) and a time to leave (Supposed to be 5:30pm but no one leaves 5:30pm on dot, you get to leave between 6-7pm) made me very sick and don’t forget I had a desk and chair of my own. It just felt more like modern slavery to me, I felt tied down and I had to catch the train back home, get home very tired, not able to do any other thing but sleep and rest to prepare for the following day just made me more sick.

Remember I said I only worked 3days a week? even at that – it still felt like shit. I know a lot of people who have jobs rightnow will think am an ingrate – have got a job I do what I love, a good pay, a good company and I just work 3 days a week. What more can you ask for you this ungrateful Daniel? [ad name=”HTML”]   Freedom, that’s what more I ask for. Freedom to think, freedom to pick my own hours, freedom to have control over my time and in turn over my destiny.

This is something a 9-5 will not give you, its very easy to get caught up in the 9-5 rat race thinking you are going somewhere but in truth – you are just there to get paid so you can pay your bills, you are working to get money to pay someone else. You have little or no time to think, find yourself, give yourself some break and do what the fuck you like. I wont bore you more with the day to day stuffs at the office but immediately I was done with the website re-brand for the company, I had to quit. I saw somethings in the 9-5 space that made me sick and I couldn’t stand it.

I could have been retained or I could have finessed my way to being retained as a full time staff, get a higher pay and start my corporate slavery journey but I chose to quit, shake their hands and return to my own thing where I have power over my time and the things I do with it. Not everyone has the courage to quit their job and do their own thing because it takes some hard balls to live a life knowing no salary is coming at the end of the month, whatever you decide to do as your Hustle has to be able to sustain you, your bills and your family if you have one and this is what ties and holds people down to jobs they don’t like or they are not interested in anymore.

The fear of the unknown and the fear of uncertainty. Trust me, I understand those fears and I think its human that is why I will never tell anyone to quit their job without being strategic about it and making calculated moves. In the paragraphs below, I will be giving you ways to find your new side hustle that you can eventually turn into your full time thing.

(1) Skill = Need = Supply.

Its a supply game. I can’t stress this enough. Making money is always a game of meeting other people’s needs, supplying a demand that is required or needed. And the fastest way to be the person that can supply a need or demand is to be skilled with a skill that people pay for or will pay for, a skill people will exchange their money for.

This is key and its not that hard to figure out, is it? A quick example is this – if you are tech savvy and enjoy anything technology, I would advice you to learn and equip yourself with a skill that can be monetized within that field. My go-to advice would be to ask yourself  a question like I asked myself at the age of 19, “What do businesses and people always need in terms of tech to better their business?” and the answer that came to me was “Website and Graphics for their business and brand” and then, I took time out to learn and equip myself with both skills and till today, am still getting paid to provide those services to clients around the world.

Find a need, get the skill and information needed to meet that need, supply the demand.

It doesn’t have to be just web design and graphics, it could be social media management, video editing, explainer video creations and more, there is no limit. I strongly advice you to pick something you know you will enjoy learning and enjoy providing the service to people. I so much believe in skill acquisition because I can give £1000 today and you will think its heaven and earth but that money will finish and go with the wind, you know what will not go with the wind?

Skill, you can use the skill to charge and make £1000 over and over and over again. So, whilst you have your main job, you can be perfecting your skill acquisition and trying to get clients with it. If you start to see traction and see you can do bad on your own, you can take the plunge, leave your job and become a full time hustler – live life on the edge where everything is on you and you are responsible for how your life turns out.

However, do not quit and burn a bridge because no one can walk on water, you always have to keep your options open and be strategic about such a move. Don’t follow the hype and motivational videos telling you to quit your job if you know you are not yet mentally ready, instead put yourself and happiness first. Do what makes you happy but don’t lie to yourself.

(2) It’s Already In You.

Two weeks ago, I had a very chilled Sunday with 2 friends of mine. They are girls, we were in my place all day just talking and vibing. Talking about life, relationship and everything in between from morning till night! (Yes, all day! I haven’t had a whole day like that where am not hustling and its just pure chilling and vibing).

Both girls have a 9-5 job and one of them always complains about her job and am always like “Babes, you are based in London, live with your parents, have savings and you are British, you’ve got a lot of things working in your favour and you don’t have any bills or responsibility on you yet. You should be doing what you love right now and figuring what you really want to do with your life instead of staying in your job, complaining like a monkey and doing nothing about it especially at a job you don’t like”.

So, I asked her what she likes doing. She said “I make wigs for my friends and family and they are dope as fuck” , that’s a market she can tap into and she doesn’t even know it, I see girls on Instagram making bank doing this. Another thing she does which is very very dope is she has an amazing voice and she can imitate different country accents. Her Indian and Jamaican impersonation racks me up, so perfect and funny. I told her, you could also build a career as a voice-over artist and stuffs relating to that, you are already good at it – just do some research and find out how you can make bank from that.

This point is important because you do not need to acquire the skill, you already have it and might be overlooking it and not know there is a potential for you to make bank from it and build a career off it instead of slaving in a 9-5 job. You already love this thing anyways, so it will not feel like work to you.

(3) What’s The Internet For?

Seriously, what do you do with the internet? If you were to calculate the amount of time you spend online – what will be the ratio of the productive things you consume and the Bullshit you shove down your throat and brain?

We now live in a world where a lot of things that were not possible years ago are now possible. People are now making a living off the internet, becoming millionaires and billionaires just from the goddamn internet and this is because there is a lot of information out there that can make you rich if applied the right way. Even though I say this, I still have to remind you that there is a lot of BS as well, stay away from those “get rich quick schemes” and all those promises of overnight wealth, if something sounds too good to be true – it always is, especially if you do your own research about that particular thing and find out things don’t check out!

For example, I started off as just a Graphics and website designer but now I do more than that. I create videos around my content, I have a blog which you are reading now, I have an online course where I teach people skills and I get paid from that ( I also have a free course too ), I have written eBooks as well – some paid and some free and all these things put together is building my personal brand Daniel Damilola Nejo which is making me an authority figure in my field with track record of work done and value added to numerous lives around the world. I now coach and mentor 100s of people around the world on entrepreneurship, hustle, design and life as a whole. Am not just a designer anymore, am a brand!

And I learnt I could branch into all these things from the information I got from some paid courses from the likes of Eben Pagan, Brendon Burchard, Ryan Deiss and many more people I have consumed their content and enrolled on their courses. By the way, I just got into this new internet business thing that am currently testing and having fun with that will also start bringing me some steady income on the side. Its all about information and ensuring you are using the internet to find information and opportunities that can get you out of the 9-5 rat race.

If you do not want to learn a skill or you think you don’t have anything in you at the moment, then you should be leveraging the internet to find new trendy information and opportunities that can set you in the right mindset and frame to get out and become free, live a life where you are in charge of your time and life. I hope you found this post valuable and you were able to pick one or two things from the article. I would love to hear your thoughts on the the article and if you have any question(s), be sure to drop your comment below and I will be more than happy to reply back within minutes.

If you want to learn Website Design, I have just released a FREE beginner friendly online course that you should enroll on and get that ball rolling. You will learn how to design websites without touching a line of code! This is the link to the FREE course The Puzzle Hustle  If you would like for me to Mentor you as you make a decision to become a better version of yourself and live a life of happiness, I just opened limited spots on my website where you can fill in your details and I will be able to call you for 10 Minutes where we will talk about where you want to be, where you are and the things you can start and should be doing to get there and we will talk about every other thing in life. This is the link to that Daniel Damilola Nejo Mentorship