Two years ago, I unexpectedly lost my job as a full-time editor in Dallas. I knew I would be moving to Chicago in six months, so I was stuck in a difficult position. It was too short for me to find a new job in Dallas and too soon to start looking for a job in Chicago.
I was 28 years old. I had always imagined following my dream of one day becoming a full-time freelance writer, but I pictured myself doing it at 35 or even 40, once I had a stronger financial footing and a larger network of contacts.
Despite the stomach twists, heart pounding I was afraid to dive into this dream before I was ready, it was my best, most practical option at the time. My husband and friends encouraged me and I figured the worst thing that could happen would be failure after six months and then finding a full-time job in Chicago.
Almost two years later, I'm still a full-time freelancer. Not only am I much happier with flexible hours and the freedom to take on whatever projects I want, but I'm more than doubling what I did as a salaried writer.
When it comes to big dreams, goals, and aspirations, many of us plan every detail so that we feel successful. But often, this over-planning is a way of protecting against failure and ultimately preventing us from ever taking action. No matter how much planning you do, you'll never feel 100% ready to take a leap of faith in the unknown.
If my story isn't enough to sway you to finally pursue your dream, take it from these seasoned entrepreneurs who dove in before they felt ready:
When Jennifer Qiao got married, she struggled to find a modern version of a cheongsam , a traditional Chinese wedding dress, and an idea was born. Neither she nor Vivian Chan, her co-founder, had any experience in fashion or entrepreneurship. They didn't even know if there was a market for their product in the United States.
One night, the co-founders created a free landing page to test their idea and discovered there was some interest. The duo created a Shopify website with just one dress over the weekend. After a month, they got their first client.
"Even though we weren't very confident we could make it a reality, we decided to start small and quickly test our idea. We never really felt ready to start a business, let alone do custom wedding dresses. However, through a lot of hard work, hustle and trial and error, we've been able to grow our team and business to six-figure recurring annual revenue and help hundreds of brides around the world celebrate their heritage in style.
—Vivian Chan, co-founder of East Meets Dress , a wedding dress company
In 2013, Nick Gray had an appointment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He instantly fell in love with the place and started organizing renegade tours of the museum with his friends.
gray continued his day job selling electrical equipment for airplanes, and organized weekend museum tours. A word about his tours and a local blog covered them. More than 1,000 people emailed Gray wanting to join his tours. A year later Gray officially quit his day job and went diving full time. Hack Museum now hosts more than 30 weekly public tours, and Gray recently sold his business for seven Figures.
“When I started leading Met tours for my friends, I had no idea it was going to be a business…. But we had momentum – friends of friends kept coming on tour, then people started finding our website and we started building a movement. »
—Nick Gray, founder of Museum Hack
Five years ago, Jamie Lackey, who had been a social worker for nearly two decades, struggled to decide whether to continue working or stay home with her two of the kiddos. Then it dawned on her:the moms she worked with in her social worker role didn't have that choice. They often worked multiple jobs, reused disposable diapers and struggled to put food on the table.
Lackey founded Helping Mamas out of his garage and his friend's basement. What started as a small project collecting baby items for children ages birth to 12 has grown into a nonprofit that has served over 50,000 children and donated over 1 million items. to low-income women and children in Georgia.
“I never take risks. I went there with a lot of fear. But I heard someone say once that you could only have one great idea, one really great idea, and you have to follow through on it because it might never happen again. And that is what happened. I took a leap of faith, faced my fears and jumped. The weather was right. Even though I was not ready, the situation was ready. "
—Jamie Lackey, Founder and CEO of Helping moms , a baby supply bank in the Atlanta metro area
Not ready to dive yet? Here are all the tips and tricks to get started before you're ready:
I started with two clients and have no idea what the business side of freelancing is. Now, two years later, I often have more work than I can handle and a deep understanding of the financial side of running a business. It's important to understand the basics of your plan, but try to notice if over-planning is getting in the way of taking action.
"You must disobey the voice in your head that says, I'm not ready yet writes Forleo in his book Everything Is Figurable. "That voice – the one that constantly tells you how not to how ready you are, how unwilling you are to do this or that, how incapable and incompetent and not good enough you are – that voice is not you and it is not true.
