Hate your job? here’s a no-stress plan to help you

With Kenya’s unemployment rate of 40 per cent, you should feel like you have won the lottery because you have a job. Shouldn’t you?  So why don’t you? Is it because of meagre pay or unexciting work?

Does your boss make the Wolf of Wall Street look like the stuff of Cartoon Network?  Or is the real reason you are unhappy at your job that deep down you feel you shouldn’t be there in the first place?

Perhaps you can shout, “Yes!” from the rooftop. Or maybe the thought of flying solo is so scary that you need privacy just to nod.

Whatever the case, the following tips will help you find the clarity and courage to become your own boss.

1.Tell yourself the truth. It is not uncommon for people to say that it took external circumstances such as the loss of a job, the death of a loved one or a major row at the office to get them moving forward, even though their intuitions had tried in vain to lead them. Life coach Ivy Luta calls these events ‘push factors.’

She explains, “Usually, there are signs that your time in employment is over, but you keep talking yourself out of quitting until outside pressure pushes you out.”

According to Luta, we prevent ourselves from following our dreams because they do not make sense; the script we were given was to go to school and then get a job.

We went to school and got jobs. What explanation can we give for wanting to leave?

As dangerous as it may be to acknowledge our feelings, the danger in ignoring them is greater.

“If you wait to be pushed out of your job, you will be so drained by the time you are leaving that you will spend a good amount of time healing and finding your bearings,” says Luta.

“If you leave on your own terms, your transition will not necessarily be shorter, but it will be of better quality because your time will be spent in discovery and adventure.”

More often than not, however, it takes push factors to help us along.

In fact, in her five years of coaching, none of Luta’s clients walked out of employment without a nudge from the outside.

Still, it is possible. The former executive director at Gina Din Corporate Communications, Desiree Gomes, was at the top of her game.

“It made my day to watch staff going about their work so confidently and knowledgeably — especially those who had joined us as interns,” Gomes recalls. “I also loved it when little-known companies became the talk of the town because of the work we had done.”

FEELINGS OF STAGNATION

However, 11 years after joining GDCC, feelings of stagnation began to gnaw, causing the public relations expert to ponder her next move for two years. Meanwhile, her mother fell ill (and would eventually pass away). This was the last straw.

“Watching my mum suffer day after day made me start thinking about my own life,” Gomes says. “Life is short, and if the thing you wake up for in the morning isn’t fulfilling any more then it’s time for change.”

Still, some element of doubt lingered: now in her 40s, the unknown was especially fearsome. “I was totally nervous as I was venturing into a new project at a later stage in life,” Gomes says. She adds, “Leaving a boss who was — and still is — like a sister, and the biggest brand in PR was not easy.”

2. Show yourself the money. Your success will probably be predicted by your bank balance, says Luta. The good news is your savings do not have to be in the millions; just two months’ worth of living expenses makes all the difference.

“Money can hijack your transition,” Luta says. “When you don’t have it, you are in a ‘state of emergency’ and cannot really think through your situation.

The ability to pay your bills, even for two months, will calm you down so that you are able to make a strategic next move.”

Saving is one half of the work. Budgeting is the other. One of the first things Sylvia Moraa did on the day she decided to quit her graphic design job of three years was to put down a financial plan on paper.

A discussion that she had overheard between her bosses had left her fuming. This was no ordinary meeting; Moraa’s bosses had come together to discuss their next holiday destination.

“My bosses never took holidays before I joined their company because they did not trust anybody else to run it,” says Moraa. “But now they travelled all the time since they had me to look after the business.” 

She sought the comfort of a friend, who challenged her to set up her own firm. That sounded like a plan. “When I got home that day, I listed the pros and cons of quitting and scribbled a budget and to-do list,” Moraa says. “Did I even sleep that night? I can’t remember.” She then wrote a resignation letter, which she handed in the next day.

By giving notice of two months so she could hand over in the first and take leave in the second, Moraa got paid to set up shop. When her notice period ended in April of 2011, she had registered her company, found office space, made her initial hires and even signed her first clients.

3. Never walk alone. It had taken years for Moraa’s father to accept that her gift for art could afford her a decent living. Now she was opting out of employment. He was not amused.

This reaction is to be expected particularly from family members, says Irene Mureithi of Personal Development Institute, an organisation that helps people to discover and live their potential.

“Those who are familiar with you have put you in a box, and they do not have the confidence that you can go in a different direction and be successful,” she says.

Moraa’s friends also thought she was making a terrible mistake.

“My friends thought I had lost my mind,” says the 30-year-old. “They worried that starting my own design firm was too bold a step for someone my age.”

It might be tempting to resign without breathing a word if your family and friends are anything like Moraa’s.

But if your income contributes to the upkeep of your household, your secret will only last until your spouse or relative storms the Kenya Power office only to learn that the week-long power cut is, in fact, the consequence of an unpaid bill.

According to Mureithi, there will always be people who will believe in you, even if you aren’t related — in fact, even if you have not met them yet. When she was starting Personal Development Institute, she reached out to her spiritual leader for support and sought mentorship from successful businesspeople such as Terry Mungai, the owner of Ashley’s Beauty Centre. Mureithi and Mungai were not already acquainted.

“There is a theory that says you are six people removed from anyone you would want to meet in the world,” says Mureithi. “As you step out of the comfort of a job, step out of the comfort of familiar relationships.”

It is not necessary to excommunicate your family. Rather, set limits to your interactions at this fragile time. For example, you can reduce the actual amount of time spent with them. Alternatively, avoid any conversation that will lead to discussing your dreams.

USE YOUR TIME TO WORK ON YOUR IDEAS

“Don’t spend your energy trying to convince people to support you,” says Mureithi. “Use your time instead to work on your ideas. And rather than spending 12 hours with that sister of yours who is always critical, spend one and allocate the rest of your time to your relationships with the people who will help you achieve your goals.”

But who knows? If you open up, you might find that you have an ally. Moraa says, “Even though my mother did not know how I was going to make my dream work — and never let me forget I could always go back into employment, she believed in my talent and prayed fervently for me.”

4Be a part-time pessimist. In a world where the majority of new businesses fail, it only makes sense to plan for the worst even as you work toward success.

Financial failure is usually the top reason why businesses collapse. What will you do if you run out of money?

“My business hit a low season six months down the road,” says Moraa. “Employment was very enticing at that point.”

While the problem appeared to be money, the solution was not to seek more capital or sales. Rather, it was to deal with problem relationships. She says, “Retaining underperforming employees out of pity cost me good relationships with clients.”

In addition, Moraa learnt the hard way that even loyal customers need nurturing. “One painful lesson I learnt was to market during the high season,” she says. “Not putting a plan in place cost my company our two best clients, whom we had taken for granted.”

You might also have to fight some personal battles. This is more likely the higher your profile.

All kinds of rumours made the rounds within the industry when Gomes left her job. “I was sad that people misconstrued my reasons for leaving,” she says.

However, as Mureithi says, there will always be people who believe in you. Others cheered Gomes on.

“My family, colleagues and business associates encouraged me to make the move and supported me along the way,” Gomes recalls. “Many offered technical advice and capital.” For example, barely after leaving GDCC in March of last year, Gomes partnered with the global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marstellar.

This is no small deal: in PR, you have arrived when a multinational firm offers to join forces with your company in order to have a local presence.

Before marching out to seek your own Burson-Marstellar, consider whether what works in PR will work for you. In her speech Seven Classic Startup Founder Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them), Kathryn Minshew, founder and chief executive of The Muse, a staffing company, says, “When you’re starting a business, there is often a tendency to feel alone enough that any (co-founder) will do. This is a massive mistake.”

And she should know. “Previously, I started a company with little more than an agreement that was written on two pieces of notebook paper. It ended very badly,” Minshew says, referring to the morning on which she was locked out of her own office following co-founder troubles.

So before signing an agreement, first ascertain that you are on the same page with your prospective partner.

What will you do if you run out of money? Will you tap into your networks or take loans? Who gets to be the celebrity if your company catches the eye of the media? “Getting alignment on these things early on will save you a lot of trouble and heartache down the road,” says Minshew.

5. Just do it. You cannot prepare adequately enough to start a business. The hats you will wear will come in sizes and shapes you might never have chosen if it were up to you.

When Moraa was starting up, she had few employees to whom to delegate. Therefore, she had to handle office administration — that means sweeping floors — human resources and operations management in addition to design.

“Although I had been a manager at my previous jobs, as a business owner, I needed to have much more detailed knowledge of the operations, both in production and administration,” Moraa says. “I had to be open to all this new information.”

Having the final say makes you vulnerable to perfectionism, another classic mistake business owners make.

Distinguish between ‘done’ and ‘perfect’, says Minshew: “You need to push your product out into the public before you can really understand how it works.”

Again, she speaks from experience. Initially, The Muse was going to be both incredibly useful and incredibly complex. It would have taken six months to launch. Therefore, Minshew and her co-founders, acting on the advice of their mentors, decided on a bare-bones version of their business — one basic enough to execute within seven to 10 days.

“And that’s exactly what we did,” she says. “One all-nighter and 12 business days later, we launched the very first product.” This allowed the team to base future iterations on actual user­ data.

Launch already.

We are nearing the end of 2014. What are your plans for next year? Will you go back to your job — your desk, from where you will flood your Facebook timeline with tragic ‘Too bad it’s Monday’ jokes?

Or will you make 2015 the year in which you will finally bid your ‘wolf of Loita Street’ adieu?