10 Reasons You Have to Quit Your Job in 2014 by James Altucher

I want to preface this post with a few things. Firstly, I realize it is no longer 2014, but the year is ultimately not the point of the article, which is posted here. The point is to make you aware of your place in the scheme of things.

Secondly, I was so blown away with the concepts and delivery of Mr. Altucher (and continue to be, when I read his articles) that it actually took several months and many re-readings to figure out how to accurately capture what he was saying in summary.

I consider this to be, hands down, one of the most influential articles I read in all of 2014; it played a huge role in how I re-positioned myself last year to start working for my own goals.

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You need to quit your job and build a foundation for your life soon, or you will have no roof.

1. The Middle-Class is Dead
   • They are being hollowed out.
   • More people have become upper-class, but there are more lower-class than ever.
   • The 'American Dream' was a marketing scam.
2. You've Been Replaced
   • Technology, outsourcing, contract positions are replacing the middle-class.
   • Most jobs from 20 years ago are no longer needed.
3. Corporations Don't Like You
   • They destroy the career aspirations of their most talented people.
4. Money is not Happiness
   • Studies show that salary increase only offers marginal (to zero, even) increase in happiness above a certain point.
   • People spend what they make, and so extra money leads only to extra spending.
   • Don't stay at a job for safe salary increases over time - you'll never get where you want: financial freedom.
5. Count How Many People Can Make a Major Decision that Can Ruin Your Life
   • Diversify what you work on, so that no one person can make a decision that could make you rich or destroy you.
   • Start planning now how to create your own destiny instead of allowing people don't like you to control it.
6. Is Your Job Satisfying Your Needs?
   • Modify your lifestyle and work to satisfy more of your needs.
7. Your Retirement Plan is for Shit
   • Inflation will carve out the bulk of your 401k.
   • Start a business or platform or lifestyle where you can save large chunks of money.
   • Everyone is an entrepreneur. The only skills you need are the ability to fail, the ability to have ideas, sell the ideas, execute the ideas, and the ability to be persistent so that even as you fail you're learning from it.
   • Be an 'Entremployee' - take control of who you report to, what you do, what you create.
8. Excuses
   • Stop making them.
9. It's Ok to Take Baby Steps
   • Make a list of dreams. These are not goals, they are themes. Every day ask yourself what you need to do to practice those themes.
   • No one is saying quit your job today.
10. Abundance Will Never Come from Your Job
    • Abundance only comes when you move along your themes, and from enhancing the lives of those around you.