Page 203 - Talane Miedaner - Coach Yourself to a New Career_ 7 Steps to Reinventing Your Professional Life (2010)

STEP 7: MANAGING THE TRANSITION SMOOTHLY 191

values became glaringly obvious that she finally made the leap and
quit her job to work on her business full-time—a bold move in the
middle of one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression.
Her father thought she was crazy to give up the security of her
job. Melissa thought about her fears, and in her worst-case sce-
nario—her business goes bust—she knew that she could always
get another legal job. She carefully considered her fears and real-
ized that since her worst-case scenario wasn’t actually that bad,
she could in fact quit. She finally realized she had more to lose by
staying in her job than by quitting and devoting her full attention
to growing Hip Hounds. Her business, which most experts would
consider a luxury service (a high-end dog day care and boarding
facility), grew 15 percent during a terrible recession! Just goes to
show you how much value people place on taking good care of
their pets!
It is worth spending some time finding ways to reduce or elim-
inate your fears. If you are afraid you won’t have enough money,
start saving 50 percent of your income by cutting your expenses
ruthlessly. Pay off all your debts, line up your disability insurance
while you are still employed, and make sure you have two years
of living expenses in a savings or money market account before
you hand in your resignation. It also helps to have a plan B in the
event that things don’t work out according to plan A. My plan B
for quitting was asking the manager of a local Italian restaurant
if he would hire me to be a hostess if I needed some extra money
while I built my coaching company. He said he would. At one
point, he asked me if I would come in and work, but I was too busy
coaching!
If you are worried about not being able to pay the rent or mort-
gage, it may be good to ask your friends and family members if
they would be willing to accommodate you in the event of disas-
ter. Just knowing you have a welcome place to go can alleviate a lot
of unnecessary fear.
If you are scared you don’t have the talent to be successful,
you can always invest a small amount of time and money in tak-
ing various computerized assessments to find out if your talents