OMG Digital Magazine July 23rd, 2015 - Vol 4 Issue 168 | Page 18

PAGE 18 • OMG Digital Magazine | Thursday 23rd July, 2015 , 2015

How to
escape your
cubicle and
live the
dream life
JOHN TEEL

I’ve been fortunate to live in some pretty amazing places.
They include a small tourist town in the Canadian Rockies
surrounded by some of the bluest lakes you can ever
imagine, a remote bayside town in Alaska with office views
of multiple glaciers; and “classic” paradise on the island of
Kauai, Hawaii, from which I could gaze upon palm trees and
the blue ocean while at work. Presently, I work in Sedona,
Arizona, with views of towering erosion-sculpted red rocks.
Feeling envious? The point is, you can do it too, and you
don’t need to be rich. You just need to believe in yourself.
For years I worked as a design engineer for Texas
Instruments, spending the biggest chunk of my life in a
tiny cubicle. Then one year on vacation, I went backpacking
through the spectacular Canadian Rockies. I was absolutely
blown away by the beauty and tranquility. During that trip, I
decided I didn’t want to spend my life in a box, that I wanted
to live and work someplace spectacular.
But I figured that the only way to do that was to get rich
in the stock market. So I began taking some ridiculous
investment risks, in the name of breaking free from the daily
grind. That strategy was a big mistake and a year later I was
no closer to breaking free of my cubicle; in fact, I was further
from it.
Then I became an entrepreneur and everything forever
changed. Instead of taking investment risks on random
companies, I took a chance on myself. There really is no
better investment. The transition to entrepreneur is by
no means easy; anticipating the loss of a steady paycheck
is daunting and stressful if you don’t plan appropriately.
Some of things I’ve learned along the way:

1. Save money before quitting your
job.

If you have a job now, that’s proof you have skills someone
wants.

Better yet, continue working your day job while you develop
your new business. Any new business takes time to build,
and you can usually expect at least a year of hard work
before making any significant income. In fact, a hardware
product startup will almost surely require several years’
worth of up-front savings to build up any sizable income.
Attaining financial security almost always takes much
longer than you expect, so be prepared.

I highly recommend you start offering your services using
outsourcing websites like Elance, Guru, or Upwork. These
websites allow you to begin bringing in an income almost
immediately. Some of the categories of work available
through these websites include translation, data entry,
website design, engineering and various administrative
tasks.

My first product startup too k me about three years before I
made any income; (fortunately I was able to support myself
by doing engineering consulting for my former employer).
Most of us can’t afford to work for years on something fulltime without seeing any monetary reward. But that really is
the pattern for a hardware startup. Not only do you fail to
draw any income for a while, but you can burn through your
savings rather quickly as you’re developing and marketing
a new product, especially if you have to pay someone else
(e.g., an engineer) to actually develop it.

3. Begin building an audience as soon
as possible.

2. Start a service business to generate
immediate income while working on
your new product.

All new businesses require time to become profitable, but
that process is many times quicker for service companies.
With a service company you can begin selling immediately,
whereas product startups have to first develop the product
(which requires spending money, not making it).
Whether you are an engineer, or a marketing professional
or a programmer, you surely have skills that others need.

Whether you plan to develop a hot new tech product or
start a consulting business, to be successful you need to
have an audience. Using websites like Elance allows you
to get work if you don’t have an audience, but eventually
you’ll want to expand beyond these websites. That’s where
audience-building comes in.
Guest blogging is widely considered one of the best
methods to accomplish this. Regardless of your skills or
desired industry, sharing your knowledge with others
is a proven method for building your audience. Find
publications that your desired clients/customers read, and
become a contributing writer for them. If you can prove
yourself to editors, you can begin proving yourself to their
readers.
There is no better investment than yourself, so begin
believing in yourself now, and live the life you’ve always
dreamed. Dreams do happen, but they require hard (and
smart) work, and most importantly a confidence in yourself.
Believe in yourself, and anything is possible.