In an age where twenty-year retirement packages and pensions are rarely available and millennials are leaving their jobs in record numbers in hopes of making their first million on the next big opportunity, the time is ripe for workers looking for an exit strategy. Never before has there been a better time to leave your dead-end job.
Such was the case with Ryan Graves, a 9-to-five-er-turned Uber billionaire, whose success story is an inspirational, yet practical example of making it happen. Here are five ways to leave a job with no future and get to seven figures shortly.
1. Develop a high-demand transferable skill.
If you take a look at working millionaires from just about every industry, you’ll notice a trend. Millionaires typically have a skill set that is transferable and/or carries a significant amount of value. In other words, they have the ability to perform functions that make them invaluable. This is often seen in the tech space. High-demand technical positions with early-phase startups can equate to an ownership percentage of the company that later turns into a seven-figure payout.
If you want to fast-track your exit strategy and move towards wealth in a shorter amount of time, develop and leverage a skill set to make it happen.
2. Ignore the word “No.”
While this may sound elementary, it’s perhaps one of the most important things to master in business if you want to succeed in achieving millionaire status. To the average worker, the word no carries a negative connotation. Yet, millionaires understand, the more no’s they receive the closer they will be to reaching their goals. The word “no” can be a good thing. It can motivate you to find a way to get to “yes.”
No can often mean that someone is just not ready yet for what you have to offer. However, a no could change to a yes the next time around. Or it may mean that you did not present your offering in the best way. Consider re-framing the way you make your pitch; in a way that shows the benefits to the recipient, as opposed to only talking about what you provide.
Hearing the word no after trying to sell something or pitch an idea is one thing, but hearing the word no from nay-sayers is quite another. If you want to successfully leave your day job then you cannot listen to detractors who tell you that you can’t do something or that it will never work. Most every millionaire who left their job has experienced this at some time or another, but they didn’t allow that negativity to occupy their head space.
You must develop the mindset of a millionaire in order to reach that status, and it starts with ignoring the word “no.”
3. Network your way out of a job.
Often times, it’s not what you know, but who you know. Networking is essential to putting yourself in a position for someone of influence to think of your name when an opportunity arises. You never know who you are going to meet; but if you don’t network you will never meet the person who could help change your life. No one has ever left their job and became a millionaire solely by themselves. They either knew someone or met someone that helped them get from point A to point B.
Use every opportunity to network and meet someone new and never underestimate the influence of people you talk to. Your next conversation may be the key to punching that time clock for the last time.
4. Hustle at your own expense.
Sometimes, to go forward, you have to go backward. In the story of Ryan Graves, he prospected and generated leads for a company that initially refused to hire him. He decided to prove his worth by accomplishing all of this on his own time and on his own dime—without their knowledge. After turning in his list of new accounts to them, that same company hired him.
If you want to get out of a dead-end job, you have to be willing to hustle and do whatever it takes to make it a reality.
5. Recognize the next BIG opportunity.
Imagine if you had invested in Apple, Amazon, or Uber back during their infancy. You may well be a millionaire right now. In order to capitalize on big opportunities, you need to develop a habit of studying trends and looking at things in a different perspective. Look for opportunities to invest in new emerging technologies, clean energy alternatives, and medical sciences.
One of the best online news resources to see what’s trending is Scientific American.
Getting out of the rat race is not impossible. In fact, now is a better time than ever. Regardless of your current situation, you can implement any number of these methods and be well on your way to leaving that dreaded J-O-B. Whether you develop a new skill, adapt the mindset of a millionaire, increase your network, out hustle everyone else, or capitalize on the next big thing, choose one or several and get busy doing the work so you can leave your dead-end job and get to your first million in the shortest time possible.
Featured photo credit: Crew HQ / Luke Chesser via unsplash.com
