From what I’ve heard from those who made the move (with proper planning), the answer is YES.
But there is often a price to pay in everything- there’s happiness even with less in the pocket. I want to share with you the true story of a good pal of mine, W:
W worked for many years in the corporate world before deciding to call it quits in the corporate world. Even when he was holding the part time job, he had always been very active in voluntarily activities. He was gifted with the ability to put people together, he has great leadership and delegation skills. And from years of managing youth groups (started from his university years), he was able to resolve conflicts in group well. So, projects that was placed under him was often a great success.
Along the line, he had taken up Yoga- he learned from the real practioners (who had spent years perfecting the skills and practicing from the great yoga masters in India). Well, there are a lot of yoga centers mushrooming now and they mostly do not teach the authentic yoga. He was also very into health, often offering various tips on detox, curing body ailments, etc.
After serious consideration, he finally decided to quit his day job and go into teaching yoga full time. At that time, I just started working not long and was ambitious- so I was one of the many people who had expressed shock over his move. But he had planned carefully and had enough allocation for his mortgage.
He had to face with many challenges after making the move- for one, he was not teaching yoga in a gym, and therefore members were erratic and irregular. But he’s a good yoga teacher- and he always help his students who needed tips for their back pain or how to reduce the tummy size. He was always willing to offer advise.
It has been 7 years since he had made the move. When I asked him if he wants to go back to the corporate world, his answer is NO. Like any freelancer or instructor, there are often dry months that went about with little income. He told me, how much money he makes is often up to him- and the amount of classes he gets depends on the effort he made to market them.
Along the side, he also went into direct selling, but he is unlike those aggressive agents that you see. He is into it as a part of health because of his personal belief that one had to eat well and take supplements to protect one’s health. So he only talked about this to people who he felt could benefit from the supplements but he was never pushy about it.
But he had gone through a lot of personal development through coming out on his own. For instance, he used to fear driving a car and would rather drive a motorbike. But when he came out on his own, he bought a car and drove it. He learned to overcome any limitations and take up the constant challenge for self improvement. He learned to deal with rejections and not to take it seriously. And he learned to take very good care of his health without neglect.
If we want to persue our dreams, we must be prepared to initially put up with hardships and rejection. In the end, you need to ask yourself if you truly believe in what you do that you are willing to take a big risk. Because, there will be people who will discourage and even challenge you. You may even stop seeing people who you thought were your ‘friends’- once you could no longer afford to buy them expensive lunches. Are you willing to leave your comfort zone and venture into the unknown?
No matter how many books or articles that you read on the subject matter, no matter how many success stories- you will never know till you experience for yourself. Till you actually make the leapt.
On the other hand, you can bear to spend the rest of your life not knowing? Then, plan your move- you need solid writen plans and strategies and not just based on thoughts and whims. Ensure you have enough money to cover your commitments such as mortgage, electricity, etc. After that, give yourself time- 6 months? 1 year? Set that timeline- if down the line you find that it’s not what you want, then go back. At least, you give yourself a chance and you will not waste time being haunted by the what-could-have-beens.
