Quitting your day job

I am in a terrifying situation. I used to be an artist. I put my art on the side and decided to do it as a hobby. I thought that I loved my programming job. Recently I've been given time off of work and I've been working on art again, and I've been working on the best project I've ever come up with. I've realized I want to leave the safety of my life and be an artist full time again. It turns out I only liked my job better than the soykafty jobs I took when I was an artist full time, but it also eats all of my time. I'm realizing that I have the personality of an artist, that I took wrong turns in my life and was forced into this life, that I am only happy when I'm creating art, that I'm good at it, and that this has always been my dream. I don't see how I can go back to work full time again. I am on the cusp of getting a huge raise, but I know that I will have to save up for years to quit. I don't see how I can keep up the level of work I put in to get this raise, much less for years. I am extremely frustrated that I have to put this project on the side. I don't see how I can talk to my parents, my girlfriend, or my friends at work about this because all of my relationships hang on my job and my status, which I never realized before. Obviously I know I have to go back to work, but I also want to hear from people who have been through this before. Has anyone left or wanted to leave their job for their art before? How did you deal with it?

Could go freelance, but that actually requires some considerable discipline to prevent it from eating up even more hours than full-time. Seriously, take how much you expect it now and multiply it by at least 1.5. Either that or it won't take off enough to cover you financially, but that really depends on whether you're competent and able to self-motivate and hunt for clients. I walked the line with freelance for about seven years or so. Kept lots of free time and worked on my own personal art and passion projects often. It was great. It was really hard. Eventually burned out on the constant discipline and lack of long-term security and got myself a full-time. Was ultra-lucky and found a place that lets me do just about whatever after I've finished my tasks; doesn't try and load me up with more crap or min-max my productivity. It's pretty ideal for now.

>>15494 Forgot to mention: taxes and health insurance are hell--in the US at least. For all the public fellating of 'small businesses' US politicians are constantly doing, our system sure tries its hardest to shove you into eternal indentured servitude under the nearest outrageously swollen megacorp. The US hypes up a big game about meritocracy and American dreams and self-made people, but it punishes you to death if you actually dare try. Once you try to take them up on it, you really have no choice but to realize what a grift it all is. You have to be utterly flawless, extremely lucky, and most likely already wealthy. Total oligarchy of a country; 100% locked down by the owning class and they aren't interested in new friends. I've heard there's good immigration policies for artists/programmers in Berlin, might check that out someday. Anyone have any experience over there?

>>15494 >>15495 I'm in Canada, but don't let that stop you from sharing advice for anyone else who finds this thread and is in the same position. I don't see myself being able to find many clients, my work would more involve touring a lot and trying to get spots.

>>15496 Any particular reason why you can't see yourself getting many clients? I'm talking about freelance programming clients; basically you do short projects for people at a higher consultant fee, save small operations the need to hire a full-time programmer that they don't really need yet. If you strike the right balance you can make a full-time wage part time and support yourself remotely while you do your art thing. Finding a client network is work but it gets easier.

>>15497 Oh, I thought you meant freelance art. Yeah, I could see myself doing that, but isn't it really competitive?

>>15498 It's not so bad. My favorite trick was to find really small players who basically aren't looking at a towering stack of contractors to pit against each other. Like brand-new businesses outside of the valley or east coast, the usual hubs where there's millions of devs to pick from. Even things like school districts looking to update some database that's been neglected for ages. Some small business that would be willing to hand over a significant fraction of an annual salary to solve a short-term problem instead of resorting to hiring somebody full-time for years. Reading it back this is all sounding kind of vague, but it's worth checking what's out there outside of the usual tech hotspots. Also helps to find somewhere with cheaper rent if you're going that route.

>>15501 There are probably more opportunities in the states but I will try it out. I am already in a low rent house. That is one thing that makes it tough, I've been working in a startup for the past year living within my means hoping it would pay off. The startup is getting purchased and I am getting a huge raise. This is the worst possible time I could have this revalation. I was so entirely convinced that this was the path I was going to take through life and it wouldn't be a problem to take a smaller salary for a year, but now that I want to change course it makes things a lot harder than if I was working somewhere that paid a bit more and saving up. Now I have to stay with this job and try to earn my salary even though I'm not in love with the work like I thought I was. If I can offer advice to anyone young reading this, it would be to not bury your feelings and desires. They DO come bubbling back up eventually, even if this has never happened to you before, and you will regret it.

>>15502 Oh yeah, totally. One has to make room for their pursuits. It's not optional. I think a lot of this modern, western philosophy that your work is your hobby, make your hobby into a job, do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life, make your art into a career and you'll never have any kind of work-life boundaries etc. is somewhat harmful. We're all taught that our job and our life's pursuits are one and the same. Of course what is implied therein is that now you don't need any time for your own life; if you are fulfilled by your job, why would you need time for anything else? So most careers don't offer work-life balance anymore. The philosophy of the labor movement has been clawed back. Most people's options are to find a job that interests them, do it 100% of their waking hours, and slowly watch their love rot--or do something that is pure menial torture 100% of the time and only live in the retreat of fantasies. And they are the lucky ones. If you're doing contractor work, a lot of the time you can find clients outside of your own country. Sometimes that involves some red tape or scofflawing, but you don't necessarily need to limit yourself to your geographic locale.

I left my first job which was decent and comfy to, no joke, pursue making cryptic symbolic worlds.com worlds which were never shown to anyone and eventually lost and deleted and I ended up homeless for almost a decade. I have no regrets. No one is going to appreciate what you do in your life and art. By taking the plunge you will learn how the world really works, the illusions will be stripped from you. Marry a rich person.

>>15521 The thing is, I have been there before. I didn't care if what I was doing was seen by anyone then either. I thought I was done with music and wanted to have a job with good money. I am older now with more resources, skills, and discipline. I know how to get booked for live shows and get my music released, as well as build an online presence, which I learned from other musicians how to do but for some god forsaken reason never did to any significant degree. I have done more of that in the past half month than I ever did. That's not to say I will make money, but it will at least mean something, and goddamnit if I don't want to see how far I can push it. I used to play shows that would kill. I drew huge crowds of people when I played in public. But I never had a large release or played a huge set. I don't want to live with that regret.

>>15523 I don't personally think it's possible to live completely without regrets, but regretting a mistake is a damned lot better than regretting not making an attempt at all. Good luck and godspeed.