Quitter Book Summary - Quitter Book explained in key points

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Quitter summary

Name: Quitter
Rating: 4.2 (29 reviews)
Author: Jon Acuff

Jon Acuff

Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job

4.2 (29 ratings)

18 mins

Topics

Success

Table of Contents

Quitter
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Learn how to move from your current job to your dream job.

We all have our own idea of where we really want to be. Some of us will have even made tentative plans to reach that place. Unfortunately, hardly any of us make it to the Promised Land, and many Americans are stuck either in jobs they hate, or in jobs they simply don’t care about.

That’s where these blinks can help. Based on Acuff’s own journey from a series of dead-end jobs to his goal of being an author, they explain how you, too, can make the jump to your dream job happen. Read on and take your first step to the future you really want for yourself.

In these blinks you’ll discover

why finding your dream job starts by not quitting your current one;
why it’s better to work hard in the morning than at night; and
why some people never seem to have enough.

Finding your dream job doesn’t start with quitting your current one.

A survey in the United States in 2011 showed that 84 percent of employees planned to look for a new job that year. That’s a huge number, isn’t it? You might’ve even been one of them!

Yet how do you go about finding this dream job? By quitting your old one? Well, no. Don’t quit your day job. If you quit right away without planning what to do next, two things could happen.

First, you might replace your old boss with new mini bosses that were previously hidden. That means your electricity bill, your water bill, your health insurance – in short, bills. When they rule your life, there’s not much chance of being your own boss.

Second, your personal relationships can be put under pressure. Worrying about money leads to an unhealthy and neurotic mind-set. You might find yourself shouting at your partner for spending too long in the shower and causing the water bill to go up, for instance.

There’s a wiser way to find your dream job: keep your day job. Well, at least initially.

Why? You run less risk of getting sucked into a opportunity that isn’t actually good enough. You don’t have to feel forced into accepting any old offer just because you have no others.

Jon Acuff’s first book contract, for example, was terrible. A publisher offered to buy the book for nothing, keep 100 percent of the profits and then sell copies back to him so he could then sell them via his blog. Luckily, he had work at the time, so he could reject the offer. Imagine if he’d been unemployed and desperate. It probably would’ve been a completely different story.

Of course, staying in your day job also helps you maintain a disciplined and healthy lifestyle, whereas being unemployed can lead to procrastination and unhappiness. And we want to avoid a negative state of mind.

Hinge moments can help you rediscover your dream.

Some of us have a vague idea of what we’d like to be doing in life, like, “I’m an accountant, but I want to be an artist.”

Yet not everyone can see their path with such clarity. Some of us want to pursue a dream without even knowing what it is.

View the risks you take through a telescope.

Naturally, following your dream does involve some hazards.

Acuff encountered many risks when pursuing his dream of becoming a writer. He quit his job, moved his family to another state and left his friends behind – a high price if things didn’t work out.

Use your day job to find your dream job.

We saw earlier that you shouldn’t quit your day job if you want to successfully chase your dream job, but you might’ve been thinking, “I hate my job. I can’t keep at it any longer.”

If that’s the case, try thinking of how you can get your terrible day job to direct you to your true calling. Your day job can actually give you the time you need to realize your dream.

Allow yourself to practice and develop.

Let’s say you make a careful plan for finding your dream job, and you resolve to stick to it no matter what. Will this strategy work?

Nope.

No dream will come true without hard work or hustle.

Many of us imagine that one day, our dream will somehow fall into our laps. It will appear out of nowhere, like something from Cinderella. Unfortunately, things aren’t this easy in real life.

If you want to succeed you need to learn to hustle. “Hustling” is slang for the effort you exert to make something happen. You should concentrate on using it at certain times.

Define success realistically, and by your own standards.

We all want to be successful, right? But should we chase success above all else? Success can actually be dangerous, if we aren’t prepared for it.

If you suddenly become famous, you’ll find your life changing. You’ll get more attention. People will start telling you whatever you want to hear, to get on your good side. This might make you arrogant, and less aware of your mistakes.

Know when you’re ready to finally quit your day job!

Once the practice and planning is over, it’s finally time to quit your day job. Your dream job should comfortably fill your empty schedule. But before you drop everything, make sure you’ve got a few things in order!

First, give your dream a test run so you can fully know that your plan will work out. Acuff, for instance, didn’t start working for Dave Ramsey, author and broadcaster, until June 2010, even though he offered Acuff a job in 2008. Right workplace, wrong job.

Don’t become too negative – it can cause you to fail.

There are three main ways in which you could prevent yourself from closing the gap between your day job and your dream job. Let’s examine them.

Many people view their lives as somehow removed from their jobs. They see a clean distinction between work and personal life. But this isn’t always so easy to achieve. Why? Because in certain ways, your work defines who you are.

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What is Quitter about?

Finding out where you really want to be in life requires patience, hard work and planning, but anyone can do it with the right dedication. Filled with many personal anecdotes from a 12-year span of job-hopping, Quitter shows you the smartest way to quit your day job for your dream job.

Best quote from Quitter

Fact: Ryan Gosling got a job making sandwiches in a deli to keep structure in his life after the success of the film The Notebook.

—Jon Acuff

Who should read Quitter?

Anyone seeking to transition from their day job to their dream job
Anyone still searching for their ideal career
Anyone who feels a bit lost in life

About the Author

Jon Acuff is a self-professed “serial quitter” who once had eight different jobs in eight years. He finally closed the gap between his day job and dream job in 2010, after he joined the Dave Ramsey team to become a full-time author. He’s since gone solo. His other works include Gazelles, Baby Steps and 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt and Stuff Christians Like.

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