Should I have a Plan B

Welcome to the Charged Life. This is Brendan Burchard. I'm always asked, Brendan, should I have a plan B if I decide to go and chase my new dream? And the answer is absolutely yes. But I have a little bit of warning and a little bit of just ways to think through you chasing your new dream. No, we all have our certain levels of risk tolerance in our life. Maybe you've been in your life that person who just goes for everything right up automatically. Easily you believe in yourself. You go out there and you crush it every single time. So you have a very high risk tolerance. You're like, oh, I can just quit what I'm doing right now and just go right now, just burn all the boats and jump in. Most people actually aren't built that way or they've been conditioned not to be that way. So you might have to think through it a little bit more at a complex level. That's what we're going to talk about in this episode. First and foremost, if you have a new dream and you want to go chase it, the answer is yes, go chase it. Now it just comes down to timing and tact, right? The timing which you go decide to go do that and the tact in which you leave the old thing to be able to go do that thing. So people say, well, should I, you know, put all my eggs in this basket right away or should I have a plan B? The answer is always have a plan B. But it doesn't necessarily mean you don't take action towards the dream. Because a lot of people make their plan B an excuse for not doing anything. Ah, you don't understand. You know, I'm still doing this thing over here, so I can't over there. I'll share with you. That was my own personal story for a little while. I had a corporate job. You know, I left grad school and I started, you know, doing consulting work for a major Fortune 500 companies. And I was doing great. I had a great job at a great company. Everything was really, really great. But in my heart, I wanted to do this work. I wanted to write a book and do speeches and shoot videos and do online courses for you guys, do seminars. And that was kind of an industry that was just growing at the time. And it was scary. There wasn't a lot of, you know, mentors. There wasn't a clear path of how to do that. There was some online marketers out there teaching some stuff, but it was kind of of all over the place. And I was scared and I had to make this decision, do I just quit my corporate job and jump all in, put all my eggs in that basket, huge risk, or do I transition slowly? And my advice to everybody is always transition slowly. It might not be your style, but let me talk you through what I mean by that. First and foremost, if you're going to make a transition, do it slowly. First piece of advice, transition slowly. The way that I did it is in this new dream, this new opportunity. I made about 20% of my income at my old corporate job before I made the full leap, meaning I was taking action towards it. I was actually doing the dream kind of part time on the side as a hobby. And I got just enough income to say, you know what, this thing, if I gave my full time to it, maybe I could make 100% of my corporate work. But maybe if I can make 30% of it or even 50% of it one day, at least I'd be happier over here. Even if I'm earning, you know, 50% less, at least I've proven the model a little bit. And that's important. I really believe before you throw all your eggs one basket, you should prove the model a little bit. Try it, do it on the side, see how it goes. And if you're getting any results at all, then it's time to plan a full transition. What I like to tell people if they're considering quitting a job is either you get some results towards it and that's how you're gonna make your decision, or you set an arbitrary date. You say, okay, six months out from today, put it in the calendar, that's the day, that's the day I quit. Hell or high water, that's the day I quit. And that gives you six months to start skilling up, developing new skills, getting your resume together, if that's what you're gonna do, or researching the business segment you're gonna go jump into. As an entrepreneur, whatever it is you, if you got a six month deadline you can work towards diligently and no matter what, boom, that's the day you cut off and you jump in to that new thing. So either A, you get a little results or B, you just have a time and you set yourself on a path to get ready for that. That's the way I like to think about it. And that way it's responsible either way that you go because you're at least in it and you're preparing. I would also say if really important, after you assess your risk and you figure out your transition time, I think it is absolutely critical. You don't fall to this false belief that is in our world now that you have to do just one thing. Brendan, should I put all my eggs in one basket? Should I only do this one thing? Look around the world now. You've got these creatives doing multiple things. You know, I write books, I do seminars, I do videos, I invest in companies, I. I advise CEOs. I do lots of things. And while it looks very narrow and focused, the skillset that I've developed has helped me become better at what I do by doing lots of different things. I really believe that whole idea that you have to do one thing that came out of an old agrarian culture where when you were growing up, you know, back in the day, when you only lived to like, 20, 27 years old, you had to choose your career. You know, you were either the blacksmith or the baker, and you had to choose that. And that's all you did for your short life, because that's all the village required. Well, now the village is global. The world is flat. We can all do tons of things. And I say, if you're passionate about lots of things, be a multi passionate. You know, be that person. Just play like life is short. Engage in your interests, do the things that you care about. Don't believe you have to do just one job, not nine to five. I think that world has gone away a little bit. If for you, putting all eggs in one basket, one new career, one new opportunity, feels like it's gonna steal away from your drive, your heart, your passions, then I'm like, no, do a bunch of your passions part time. That's cool, too. It's like the Portlandia episode, where people go. Where young people go to retire, where you can do a lot of different things and still have joy in your life. You know, when you think about this question of how do I assess my risk? How do I set that timing? Another thing I like to tell people is risk is really something that you would assess based on essentially, has someone done it before? And do you have the skill sets, talents, or joys in doing it? If you're going to go do something no one's ever done before, take a little bit longer to plan, have your plan B working, your job plan a little bit longer, move towards it steadily, but if no one's ever done it before, there's no path, right? You don't know what to do. It's gonna take a little bit longer. So, yeah, hold on to the job. Yeah, hold on to what you're doing. Just Long enough so you can at least pay your bills, live in some kind of comfort versus being out there completely broke. Because you know what? It's hard to build from bankruptcy. And that's where I was. You know, I remember when I first left my corporate job, started doing this, started going pretty well. I had about 20% income, jumped in full, I mean, just went for it and quickly went bankrupt because I didn't know what I was doing. And I look back, I said, did I transition too quick? I probably did, but am I happy that I did it? Yes. It just would have probably been easier if I took my time a little bit. So it's difficult, right? Because you hear these competing conversations going on even in this video here. It's like, do you jump all in? I'm like, yeah, go for it, but go slow. Because. Because too many people have wrecked careers or life because they jumped into something way too quickly without least doing research, taking steps towards it, getting some results and getting a mentor. Have somebody that's done it before, read how they did it, interview them, ask them how they did it, ask them to mentor you, to walk you through it, enroll in their course, go to their seminar, whatever you gotta do. You can learn from somebody who's already been there and done that. Go to the conferences, get in the game of understanding it first. I think the trouble happens when people say, brendan, should I throw all my eggs in basket, burn all the boats and just go? And I say, well, what do you know about it? And they go, well, nothing. I go, well, no. Until you've done your research, done your homework, and at least have a sense of the plan or the process to succeeding, don't jump, get those first. That way you can meet your obligations, take care of yourself, live in some kind of comfort, at least have some income and then do it. But I want to end with this. No matter what you decide, whether you're doing partially plan B, you have a backup plan, have a backup job or doing something else, or you're really, you know, going for something new. Whatever you do in your life, and no matter how many things you're doing in your life, commit to it. That's the answer. Commit to it in whatever way. Commitment doesn't mean full time. Commitment doesn't mean hours of the day. Commitment is an emotional engagement with what you're doing with full confidence that it is the right thing. And that's what you got to give yourself, that gift. If you're going to go achieve this, don't go half ass at it. When you're working on it. Even if you're only working on an hour a day. Work it. Focus, get away everything else. Give your full heart, your full intensity. Don't be like, well, I guess I'll play with it for 20 minutes. No, if you're going to do it for an hour a day, do it for an hour a day. Even if you have four different things you're doing, four different passions, four different opportunities you're chasing, I don't care. Okay? Each one, give it two hours. Full, intense focus. Boom, boom, boom. If you don't give it full, intense focus, no matter what you're doing on each side, your soul will feel it. Your mind will know you're lying to yourself, and you will just continue to falter. You gotta fully commit emotionally into everything that you're doing. And as you do that, you start to have so much more vibrancy in your life because you're like, you know what? I'm not half assing. I'm in this thing. And you got to give yourself that. You got to give yourself that. I'm in this thing. And once you do that, guess what? You'll find what your real thing is. Because if you're fully committed to something and you're in it and it's just not working and it's a slog and you're just like, this isn't connecting with me. I don't feel this. Then you know, at least you gave it. You didn't. At least you gave it all your brain go, you know what? We poured us into. This thing didn't work out. Not my thing. And you walk. But if it's a passion or a dream and there's multiple and you're doing full commitment in this with your emotions, full commitment in this with your emotions, and you're vibrant in both, then do both. Don't feel like you ever have to be a single, narrow human being. There's too many opportunities today. There's. There's too many great things. You have too many diverse interests that engage you and excite you. You know what? Give yourself that ability to focus on a lot of different things in your life. But whatever you do, commit to each and you'll start to feel what we call the charge life. Hey, it's Brendon again. Did you notice something in today's episode? Yep. No ads, no sponsors. Just a positive message to improve your day. How do I do it? How is it that you listen to all those other podcasts and they have minutes and minutes worth of lame ads for underwear or other websites they're promoting. Hey, I don't judge them, but I choose to focus on you in this podcast. And personally, when I listen to other shows I just skip those long winded sponsor pitches. Anyway, I can only do this because you share my podcast with so many other people and enough folks end up looking me up online and buying my books or taking my online courses that I can self fund this entire effort. And you know how hard it is to do all this and that's why I appreciate you guys so much. I heard that you even helped me break a record too. The longest running top 10 self help show without a single sponsor or product pitch or ad. So if you like this podcast ad free and sponsor free, do me a favor. Tell a friend today you know you should listen to the Charged Life Brendon Burchard's podcast. Just help spread the word, share why you like my show or tell people to go to podcast.brendon.com it would sure help and I'd appreciate it. And I'm sure our community would too. I look forward to talking with you again soon my friend. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly and make your difference. Today.