Why I quit my job…

Summary

• Reflect on how current jobs align with ambitions. If feeling trapped, it's crucial to consider exploring opportunities for growth.
• Look for inspiring examples, like my father's entrepreneurial aspirations, to motivate a shift away from an unsatisfying career.
• Evaluate potential earnings in the chosen field versus owning a business. If traditional roles don't offer the desired financial or personal growth, starting a business might be the answer.
• Take calculated risks by learning from the best to work towards personal business goals, just as I moved to California to learn and eventually start my venture.
• Recognize when education doesn't align with career needs, as my exercise science degree didn't teach me sales and marketing, which are critical for business success.
• Assess personal resilience and how to cope with rejection or setbacks. Prior successes under stress can indicate future resilience.
• Question whether staying in a job is more daunting than leaving. If the dread is greater, it might be time to consider moving on.
• Consider the worst-case scenarios for quitting versus staying. If the pain of staying exceeds the fear of failing after quitting, it may signal a need for change.
• Ask whether the new opportunity allows for personal growth. Opportunities that feel risky might offer the greatest potential for expansion.
• Evaluate how past behaviors in stressful situations predict future actions. If there's a history of thriving under pressure, it might be safe to take a leap.
• Realistically assess the worst-case scenario when taking a risk. It can provide clarity and reveal that the fear isn't as insurmountable as imagined.
• Leverage proven business models and personal ability to speculate on success after quitting a job.
• Make decisions based on personal drive and misery in the current situation. Deep dissatisfaction can be a powerful motivator for change.
• Be wary of indecision, as it can undermine confidence. Set a deadline and commit to a choice, whether that's staying or leaving a current role.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest reflecting on your job and if it makes you feel trapped, start looking for growth opportunities. Find someone who has done what you want to do, like my dad, who wished he'd started a business, and let that inspire you to make a change.

Consider your earnings potential. If a traditional job doesn't meet your goals, maybe starting a business is the way to go. You don't need a lot of money to learn from the best. I moved to California with barely any money to do that. It was a risk, but it paid off.

Look at your education. If it's not helping you with what you need, like sales and marketing, seek out that knowledge. You don't have to go back to school; there are books and free resources online.

Assess how you handle stress and rejection. If you've been strong under pressure before, that's a good sign you can handle the ups and downs of starting something new.

Ask yourself if you're more scared of staying in your job or leaving. If the thought of staying makes you feel terrible, consider making a move.

Think about what's worse: the worst-case scenario of quitting or staying put. For me, staying was worse, so I made the jump.

Evaluate new opportunities for personal growth. Sometimes, the ones that seem riskiest offer the greatest potential for expansion.

Be honest about how you've acted under stress before. If you've thrived under pressure in the past, it's a sign you might be ready to take on new challenges.

Consider your worst-case scenario if you take a risk and see that it isn't as scary as you thought. This clarity can give you confidence.

Use proven business models and your abilities to predict success. Trust your instincts and your drive.

Don't let indecision paralyze you. Set a deadline for your decision and stick to it. Whether you decide to stay in your job or leave, committing to your choice will build your confidence.

Remember, low cost and high value come first. Start small, learn as much as you can, and take those steps towards growth. Use these strategies to guide you, and believe in your potential.

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"I would rather be broke and be poor than say this is the life I’m going to assign myself to because I feel like I will literally die with potential left in me"

– Leila Hormozi

"I do not want to live this life without seeking my full potential and seeing what I’m actually capable of"

– Leila Hormozi

"Any time I’ve been in a situation where my back’s been against the wall, where I’ve had to make it work, I’ve been able to make it work"

– Leila Hormozi

"You have to consider this: if I were not in my job, would I make more money in the other opportunity that I have if I had the time?"

– Leila Hormozi

"Indecision is the worst; it’s worse than any decision you can make"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with songs left in them that quote makes me think about the story that i wanted to tell today which was why i quit my job and started um gym launch with alex the reason i started with that quote is because i think if you're in a job right now and you're not sure what to do you're not sure if you should quit maybe you started something on the side maybe you have a business that you're working on maybe you have kept the job and you have a business that's you know maintaining growing or at least profitable i hope this video resonates with you because i was in an interview the other day and someone asked me you know why did you quit your job and start gymlaunch with alex and it brought me back to really thinking about how i used to feel at that time and i think it you know i was hoping it would be beneficial for anyone who's in that spot right now and trying to figure out what they need to do so i'll tell you the story um and then how i kind of thought through the decision backtrack i went to college i got a degree in exercise science i did not like college at all i didn't try my hardest to be really frank like i was really average mediocre um and the reason for that is because most of what i was learning i knew it was just absolutely not applicable to what i wanted to do so i was just in there to get it done call it a day and get out and you know i don't even know if i like i think back now and i'm like man i think i just wasted time i kind of wish i just started doing what i was doing but you know neither here nor there so i went to college i got a degree in exercise science i thought i want to be a personal trainer i want to help people transform their lives i want to go into something in business and the reason i want to go into something in business was um two things that happened to me which was one watching my dad actually uh in his job and in his life and you know he always told me he wished he had started a business he had wished that he had gone into more entrepreneurship and i saw people like my dad and many others who were in jobs where they felt like they were almost you know it's almost like even if you could like the job you still feel trapped because of all the things that people put in these roles to you know essentially golden handcuff people to them and so i lived in a town where i feel like i was surrounded by that and i looked at it and i was just like i don't know what i want to do but i know it's not that like that looks terrible and i would rather be broke and be poor than say this is the life i'm going to assign myself to because i feel like i will literally die with potential left in me and one thing that i have always subscribed to is like i do not want to live this life without seeking my full potential and seeing what i'm actually capable of right that was the first thing is watching all these people living in a town of people who essentially went to work uh didn't like it felt unsatisfied exhausted it was almost painful to watch and then they would go home either go to the local pub go to the local bar watch tv mindlessly for hours and then go to sleep and then wake up and do it all over again maybe get drunk on the weekends and watching that i was like no i don't want to do that that was the first reason why i knew that i would go to college but i didn't want a traditional job uh the second reason was that i remember being at a job fair and it was the first year of college and it was you know essentially you're picking what's my path gonna be like why am i even going into this major and i remember one of them was they had a physical therapy you know tent or whatever and so i went there and i was like all right i think that's the most high-paying job you can get maybe i'll get one of those get some experience and open up my own clinics that was kind of the thought and there was a woman there who she was the head of a clinic and she had gotten out of college six years prior and i i asked her i said you know like how is it she's like it's amazing she's like i work only six hours a day you know six days a week and dude i am making six years out 85 grand a year and i remember she said it like she was so proud of it and in my mind i was like that's terrifying i was like you've been up for six years you're only making 85 grand dude that sucks and you know knowing and looking at the jobs and the limitations i was like there's just no way i'm gonna make any money in this so i knew immediately going through the phases i was like i'm gonna have to start a fitness business my own because i don't know how it's gonna happen and so with that intention i actually moved out to california i didn't have a job i barely had any money i didn't know anything about california but i was like i have to go out there and i have to learn from people who are the best and i'll work under them i'll work where i have to go um because then eventually i can become the best because i've learned from the best and i can have my own business and so i moved out to california and this was immediately after it was the day after i graduated college i packed up my prius moved out there um and i went apply to every gym that there was in the area and applying all of them then i tried out i think i worked at like three of them for like less than a week because i just want to see which one i liked the most um and you know after multiple instances of just absolutely being disgusted at people telling me to hike up my shorts and pull down my shirt which i will not do if you know me i don't solicit my body to make business um i was like okay this isn't working and so i actually ended up working on a 24 hour fitness and through the 24 hour fitness you know i realized very quickly that um i had not been taught marketing or sales so i had none of those skills i just knew how to fulfill and i knew how the human body worked which nobody gave a about right like literally zero bucks and so i was immediately like i've wasted all this time in college i knew i shouldn't have gone i should have just gone and learned sales right because that's what i'm doing now and so after the first week i was absolutely terrified and i remember going in the bathroom stall crying because i was like i can't like this is too much like i wasn't used to the rejection that i was getting but i eventually got good at it right and so it's like i told myself i'm not going to give up i'm going to power through i'm going to make this work i need to learn and so i did and i powered through and i built up my clientele over the years and then eventually got to the point where i realized like hey if i stay here i'm just all they want to do is push me up the corporate ladder nothing wrong with that not my style and so i said i need to learn from someone who's like the absolute best in the area and so i found a gym where i had heard that the owner was like one of the absolute best he was a fantastic trainer he knew business like they were organically growing i was super pumped so i went there to learn from him and it was actually a fantastic experience it was also a fantastic experience in the sense that i saw the the side of the business that i hadn't seen before which was the struggle right it's like when you're far enough away in a corporate world you can see it seems like people just come in and they go through the door right like i'm the one selling them but i'm not like you know the thing that makes uh you don't there's no illusion uh there is an illusion essentially that uh everything is secure because you're in this giant building and they have all these people's payroll and whatnot and so you don't even think about that um but when you're a small gym you see how fragile it actually is and so working there i built up actually an online clientele and in person clientele at that point um i was actually making less money than i have been before because at 24 you know the commissions are much higher and i built up enough clientele that most of them didn't come with me um and i was like this sucks and i remember waking up every day and i just had this intense feeling in my gut in my stomach like my stomach was always constantly hurting i could barely eat anything because it was just literally like i thought that i had like gut problems or whatever but i was just so nervous all the time um because one i felt like i wasn't making enough money and living in california was five times as expensive as living in michigan which is where i came from and then second to that was i felt so unfulfilled like i remember going to work and coming back from work and thinking to myself like is this it like is this what i'm gonna do with the rest of my life and like is the next step that i'm just gonna own the gym and have other people do this for me and like i'm just gonna come in every day and do the same thing and like man like that seems too small for what i want to do like is that going to fill the rest of my life until i die those are the thoughts that are going through my head and you know i remember so many times of just having this overwhelming feeling and it wasn't because the work was hard and it wasn't because i was tired from the work it was because i was emotionally drained from knowing that it wasn't right for me but i'd committed all this time and energy to it and i thought to myself i was like what's next like what do i do from here because i don't what kind of business do i start i thought to myself well maybe it's that i go all in on online or maybe i start like a different kind of gym and i franchise it from there and so those are the two paths i was looking at i was like i've got to take everything i've done for the last seven years i've got to turn into something and that's actually when i met alex and that is when alex uh presented me with the idea of starting gym launch and people always ask they're like why did you do that like i left everything after knowing him for four weeks everything right like all the clientele i had built up everything i had known to go do this thing where we're gonna jump from gym to gym and fill these gyms up and there was no stability and people ask me you know how did you make that decision and so i kind of want to break down like literally how i made that decision because there were multiple people who i consider mentors and close confidants in my life who helped me talk through this because honestly i was terrified um i was terrified of making a decision that other people would judge me for which i had to remove that fear of judgment of others i was also so i think i was just so much more terrified of staying where i was and being miserable that it was almost like more incentivizing to take the jump and so if you're trying to make a decision like this right now i think here's what i would ask myself um and here's what i did ask myself okay the first one was which opportunity allows me the most growth i remember thinking through that and i was like honestly that's an obvious one because you know as terrified as i was to go do this thing with alex that like absolutely made no sense and i didn't understand what it was and it was not a real business yet um i was like it's i will grow so much more if i take this risk right because any i thought to myself okay which opportunity allows me to grow more sometimes i tie that in with like which one do i fear the most and i was really scared of failing and you know looking like a failure to my parents because i think when you're in your young 20s you really have that it's like fear of judgment from others you're just coming out of high school in college you've still got this large group of community around you who you know you're not on that different path yet but you're kind of starting and so there's a huge fear of judgment but i knew i was like the opportunity to allow me to grow is the one where i just take this leap and i go do it right and like when's a better time like at that point in time i was 23. i mean i'm 29 now if i were 29 and i would just take that i would do it too you know i'm young as hell and so i think like if you're asking yourself um the first question is which opportunity allows you to grow the most right and a lot of times that's the one that you're most scared of the second question um that i asked myself was i was like all right what's my track record of how i react in stressful situations and i was like i mean every time i've been a situation where my back's been against the wall where i've had to make it work where i moved out of california i had to make money right like i've been able to make it work i haven't crumbled under pressure and so to think that i would go and do this thing and quit my job and give away all my clients and then start this other thing and just crumble it like there's no evidence from the last 23 years of my life to support that and so i think it's knowing yourself right for some people i don't recommend that they quit their jobs because honestly they have crumbled under pressure before and it is a pattern that they have and so maybe you keep that job and you start doing the other thing uh until then you do both until one makes enough money that you feel comfortable right and it's knowing like what's your discomfort tolerance right i had a very high discomfort tolerance it doesn't mean that i'm not uncomfortable i'm uncomfortable as when i'm making this decision when i'm doing these things i'm sweating i'm anxious i'm feeling it but i'm able to do it right and some people haven't trained themselves yet to act in those situations and so i think it's knowing yourself and saying if i put myself in this in this what my brain perceives as dangerous situation how am i going to react and look at the evidence to kind of claim like how have you in the past majority of the time right everyone slips up but like majority of the time how do you react the third one is asking yourself what is the absolute worst case scenario and then what's the probability that that would actually happen okay and so i remember talking this through with i actually had a therapist at the time she's probably the only therapist i ever had um and she basically walked me through and was like what's the worst thing that's gonna happen layla and i was like all right uh the worst thing is that i literally i quit i started doing this thing with alex and then you know we make no money he says you you get out of here and i have to go end up i can't pay rent and so i have to you know end up on my dad's couch because like i'm not gonna be homeless because i have family and friends and so i guess i'd end up at my dad's couch she was like well what would that be like and i was like honestly it wouldn't be bad because like you know they cook for me and they clean i want to take care of all this and so like i'd get on my feet and i'd get a different job and i'd figure something else out she was like how bad is that i was like it's really not that bad it's like okay well what's the worst case scenario if you don't make this decision i was like i mean the worst case scenario is i'm doing this for another five years that's not a lot worse to me when i panned that out the worst case scenarios and kind of pairing them against each other i was like dude i do not want another however many years of feeling miserable and feeling like i'm unfulfilled and feeling like i'm in the wrong boat like i just felt like i had all this potential and i was doing a really good job where i was but it felt like the opportunity wasn't big enough right like i was like there's just so much untapped potential and things i want to do that in this bucket i just can't do them that's the third one is looking at the worst case scenario and so for a lot of you um especially if you're watching my channel you probably don't have a huge worst case scenario you probably have people that you know that you could stay with if you couldn't pay rent you couldn't do this or you have a ton saved up right versus if you have a ton of people relying on you you don't have much money saved up and your idea is not even panned out yet you don't have even anything making any money at all then i would say like maybe consider you know building something up more and not just taking the jump because it's more likely for that worst case scenario to happen right and so that's how i would think through that piece and then the last piece to think through is um you know i think you have to consider this which is if i were not in my job would i make more money in the other opportunity that i have if i had the time right so would i make enough money to support myself if i quit my job in my other opportunity and at that point in time you know the model for gym launch as we as we knew it back then right had been proven out and it was very lucrative and so i was like if i did have the time to go do this i would be able to make that money right and so it's just a matter of switching what you're doing and saying okay now i can do that versus if you are have been doing something it's not making money even with more time you put into it you take away from your other job it's not making more money i think that's something you want to reconsider right and so those four questions were honestly what prompted me to leave my job and start the business with alex now the caveat i will say to this is um i think i was just you know like all of the logic in the world of the questions i think that we are much more emotional than we like to let ourselves out to be i think i was so miserable that i was honestly way more terrified of staying where i was than i was quitting my job and so i think at the end of the day every question i asked myself i was interpreting with knowing that in the background like that was the thing driving me from the inside and so i think that sometimes if you have that much pain where you are and if you feel like you're literally like i feel like this is sucking my soul up right because you know you can be doing so much more and you have so many more skills you have so many things you want to do and you're not growing i think sometimes everything else can go out the window because you will have the will and you will have the drive to make whatever the you need to make happen to make it out on the other side and to make it work and so it's just a matter of knowing yourself and so you know if you're in a situation right now where like should i quit my job should i go do this thing think through that and then really pan out you know i think a lot of people don't like to go through what's the worst case scenario because people are like oh if you visualize the positive that happens like oh don't visualize a negative it might happen like you know i don't visualize my leg falling off it doesn't fall off okay and so visualizing the negative is a really useful exercise because then you can say how i react when it happens and i want to tell you after i quit my job and we started much there were a lot of terrible things that happened which we'll talk about in more videos and it's like a year and a half two years of absolutely just eating over and over again and but i felt better eating knowing i was moving forward when i eat and i know i'm staying in the same place i feel miserable i feel dead inside but if i can eat and at least know i'm trying and i'm charging forward to a better future i would just pick that any day over staying stuck i hope this video was of use to you um i hope that if you are contemplating this you can really reflect on this and really ask yourself um you know and and make a decision like i think indecision is the worst it's worse than any decision you can make right you either decide that you're going to continue doing what you're doing or you decide that you're going to take the leap make the decision give yourself a deadline right because indecision will degrade your confidence when anything else will so with that i hope you have a fantastic day and i hope that you make the decision that aligns with most of who you want to be in the future