In Jon Acuff?s new book, Quitter, he explains how constantly leaving one job for another never led to anything different or worthwhile. So how did he and his wife decide to quit and go to work for Dave Ramsey? How did he know it was time to quit his day job and pursue his dream job? Reason #2 is below.
By Jon Acuff
[My wife and I] started discussing what criteria the next opportunity needed to fit. This was helpful because it took the pressure off of looking for the perfect job?which is the equivalent of trying to find one needle out of a country-sized haystack?and instead allowed us to brainstorm the characteristics my dream job might possess.
We both felt it should be at a company where faith was part of the culture, not just something that happened in pockets.
I didn?t want to work at a church. I?ve freelanced for churches for years. I have friends who love their jobs at churches across the country. My dad?s a pastor and it would be easy to think I need to follow in his footsteps. But I never felt as if a church was where I was called to be.
I wanted to work in a team environment where I was surrounded by people all day. As a writer, I?ve never been great at the Stephen King, sit-in-a-cabin-in-Maine-alone-for-three-months-writing-a-book gig. (That?s only one of the characteristics that differentiates the two of us; the millions of books he?s sold is the other.)
I wanted to work at a company where an individual had grown a personal brand successfully and humbly, without getting lost in all the traps that face leaders.
I wanted to stay in the Southeast. Although I grew up in Massachusetts, the South was now my home. As we started to discuss these factors, an activity that happened mostly in those Adirondack chairs in our side yard, we started to eliminate a lot of companies. We had that filter in place, and when the Dave Ramsey opportunity came up, we checked it against our criteria.
Faith is a big part of the culture at Dave Ramsey, so that one passed the test. It wasn?t a church, but it was actually a for-profit business actively involved in the marketplace. They had a staff of 300 people I?d get to interact with. I could still write and speak without doing a one-man show from my basement. And I?d be based out of Nashville, which was perfect, geographically speaking. Dave has also spent 17 years growing a personal brand. He?s got a huge radio audience, is a New York Times best-selling author, and has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people. And he?s managed to not become a jerk along the way. That?s no easy feat.
One by one, our filter criteria were met, which helped us feel good about the decision to quit. It?s important to note that the level of detail you put in your own opportunity filter will vary by item. For instance, some of them will be specific and measurable, like, ?We don?t want to work at a church.? That one was easy to verify and check off. Others will be broader and less defined, like, ?Be at a company where faith is part of the culture.? That?s more difficult to measure. So as you build your filter, try to have a mix of both the specific and the broad.
Reason 1 why he quit his job.
Read Quitter for more advice on the right way to quit your day job in pursuit of your dream job.
Excerpted from Quitter by Jon Acuff. Copyright 2011 Lampo Licensing, LLC. Published by The Lampo Press. Used with permission.