Get me out of this cubicle!
Written by John Teel.
While enjoying our hot tub and discussing our future plans one chilly evening in Tucson Arizona, my wife turned to me and asked, “why don’t we just move to Alaska?”
As a child I was never into scenery, and I was way too much into computers and electronics.
For instance, in my grade school yearbook, in a section titled “Can you imagine?” for me they wrote:
“Can you imagine…John Teel NOT talking about computers?”.
Everything else just seemed irrelevant to me then.
My dream was to live in a modern city and work for a big tech company.
So that’s what I did.
After graduating, I moved to Dallas and began my career as a microchip design engineer at Texas Instruments.
I finally had my dream job and I was so happy!
At least for a while…
After a few years I started itching for a more “exotic” life than the one I was living inside my cubicle walls.
I had taken a recent vacation to the desert Southwest, and immediately fell in love with the alien landscape.
I wanted more of that, and less city, and definitely less time in a cubicle.
So when TI opened a design office in Tucson I immediately requested to relocate.
I was in awe of the beautiful landscape of the Sonoran Desert, and was thrilled to be in a city surrounded by wilderness.
But… I was still in a city…and still in a cubicle.
After a few years, I couldn’t stand being tied to a city and an office anymore, even if they were surrounded by wilderness.
Life is short, and I had to break free!
But I wasn’t ready to quit my dream job just yet, financially or mentally:)
Luckily, I was able to convince my bosses to give me a 3-month sabbatical.
Honestly, TI spoiled me, and they pretty much always gave into my requests.
So my wife and I relocated to the Canadian Rockies for the summer, and also took a vacation to Alaska.
Although I loved the Rockies, the extreme wilderness and prolific wildlife of Alaska is what got me most excited.
I was so emotionally moved by Alaska that on our return flight I decided to become an entrepreneur so I could make money to help protect wild places.
That summer was a life-changing adventure that went by way too quickly.
I was at such a low point when we had to move back to Tucson and I had to go back to the office after that summer break.
We had completely fallen in love with Alaska, and now that was where both my wife and I wanted to be, at least in the summer.
But, we couldn’t figure out a way to spend only our summers there.
That’s when my wife asked me in the hot tub “why don’t we just move to Alaska year-round?”
Without hesitation I answered “okay, let’s do it!”
By this point I was working on developing my own product called the Pop-up MicroLite, but it was nowhere near producing income yet.
I estimated it should be generating income for us within about a year…
… and that we’d probably be rich within 2 years:)
Um. Oh boy, was I wrong!
It always takes you a lot longer than you think to do anything complicated, especially for the first time.
So I quit my dream job, we loaded up our VW camper van, along with our two dogs and two cats, and we set off on the long drive to Alaska.
After we arrived, I finally had the time to focus full-time on my product!
I was determined to finish it and start generating revenue within a year.
Well…needless to say…that didn’t happen and it took a lot longer than I expected to generate revenue.
This jump from full-time employee to full-time entrepreneur is one I suspect you are striving for as well.
Maybe you think it’s too stressful to work a day job and start a new business on the side.
But, I’ll tell you what’s a lot more stressful…
… not having a stable source of income while you focus on your project.
Rushing to earn revenue may cause you to rush your project.
And rushing always equals more mistakes!
I strongly suggest that you find an intermediate stage between being a full-time employee and full-time entrepreneur.
The two best intermediate stages for you will be:
1) Offer your expertise and services as a freelancer. Ideally, the services you offer or the industry you’re freelancing in will be related to your own product.
2) Sell products similar to the one you’re developing on an e-commerce site. This can be a gold mine of customer data.
Both of these intermediate options allow you to escape your cubicle and generate some quick income.
But perhaps more importantly, they give you valuable insight that will help you ultimately succeed with your product.
