What I Learned Quitting My Job To Be My Own Boss
I was lost the entirety of my undergrad years, weighing two ideas of either becoming an event planner, or doing something in the marketing/advertising world. I graduated, and within a few years, burnt out from event planning. I moved across the world to teach English in South Korea. And when you’re in a foreign country alone, you learn that you have a lot of time. So I gave myself the year to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, so I could see what I am naturally drawn to. I came home with a lot of clarity, seeing that I could stay up and write until the AM, create photos, graphics, and edit videos without anyone telling me to do so. I took on various jobs that allowed me to do these things, but found spaces outside of work that let me be my full potential. That’s how I began to plant the seeds of freelance without knowing it—I just did what I liked, people saw, and those that needed me, found me.
It’s been many years of dreaming, one year in the making, and 7 months building, and 4 months officially launching full-time. I have so much more to learn, to experience, to grow from, but here are some things that I have acquired in my entrepreneur journey so far that I felt were important to share for someone out there that might be pondering on making the jump. Because I think as Hmong children, entrepreneurship was not an option; because of our Hmong immigrant narrative, our history, and our people's hunt for survival.
But as we have grown as a people, living our dreams have become more and more possible with the many Hmong entrepreneur pavers today. Just like our parents’ dreams to establish our lives here.
1. Sometimes it’s not that you were lost or never good enough for the job.
There aren’t any jobs out there yet to fit, categorize, and box the uniqueness of you.
2. Money is out there. If you never ask, the answer will always be no.
3. You never know until you try. Every shot you don’t shoot, is a shot you miss.
4. Freelance isn’t everyone’s cup of tea just because it seems glamorous.
You have to thrive off of having no structure, foundation, direction, and manual provided for you.
5. I am more afraid of never having tried, than I am of failure
6. I was able to give myself a raise, I would’ve worked years to persuade someone else for.
7. Starting a business doesn’t mean your growth, evolution, interests, and passion ends there.
8. Freelance is more than just knowing how to do your craft.
It’s knowing how to run your craft as a business, how to market your craft, and how to sell your craft.
9. Owning a business also means learning how to self-care, to draw boundaries, and to support others.
10. Freelance opens up your eyes to all the hustlers in your life that you’ve supported, didn’t know you
weren’t supporting, and now understand.
11. Freelance seems like a more natural way of living than working a 9-5 for someone and something you aren’t engaged in.
12. Freelance is the ultimate canvas to pave your own path and carve your life into something you’ve
always dreamed.
13. Freelance requires a tribe, requires the loved ones in your life, and requires you to have the most trust
and faith in yourself.
14. Freelance requires you to be humble of what you don’t yet know, and yet confident of all the things
you’ve embodied, learned, and innately know up to this point.
15. It’s okay to still feel lost sometimes. As humans, we are always growing, always changing. And it’s only
natural that our ideas, style of living, and interests change along with us too.
If you are thinking of jumping ship and being your own boss, I say plant all the seeds and do it. 9-5 jobs will always be there, but having the health and time to make sacrifices for building your own dreams might not.