Last day in the corporate world.

Yesterday was our last day in the office. As I have shared on this article, we were “laid off” as part of the company’s new strategy probably to save and earn more money in the long run. And yes, mass lay off and cost cutting also happens in the Philippines especially in BPO sector. That said, that also marked my last day in the corporate world. Here’s what I mean.

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For the past month and several weeks after the announcement was made, I was thinking and contemplating what would be my next plan of action. Should I apply for a new one or take a leap of doing something different?

As part of my default human and Filipino thinking, my initial plan was to apply and look for a new job. One with much higher salary and good benefits. You know, the common employee-mindset.

So I updated my resume, updated all my online job profiles and started submitting and applying for network administration or network engineering related jobs.

Couple of days after, I started receiving interview calls and inquiries. It is true that in the I.T industry there are many opportunities especially if you’re a Cisco Certified like us.

I answered each of the call and interview. Passed most of them and scheduled for the next phase or face to face interview in their respective office. In the surface, I’m positive I can get a job from any of those interviews if I push through it. Only if.

But there were something  bothering me. Something that I can’t get out of my head.

Every time the scheduled interview day is coming, I started to think negative in some ways. And here’s what I mean.

I started thinking the traffic and the struggle to get to their office. Most of the offer are located in Ortigas, Makati, BGC and even Alabang. It will take a minimum of 2 hours to get to any of these locations from our home in Quezon City. And then another 2-3 hours going back home.

Just thinking how I can get there for the interview makes me tired. How much more if I’ll work there, right?

I started thinking the “shifting schedule” that you need to work night, weekend or even holidays. That’s one of the fallback in most the I.T jobs, you will be open for a 24/7 support which means you’ll be changing schedule left and right. And yes, most of the time you can’t do anything about it.

I started thinking the stress I’ll be handling once I get on board when dealing with network incidents and outages. Network engineers carry a lot of responsibilities in business. When network is down, the company is losing money so you have to work your ass fixing the issue. And that’s not easy to handle if the company has large and complex network infrastructure.

I started thinking the stress dealing with unpleasant co-workers and unpleasant boss. Or those that pulling you down when you’re doing something great. Office politics, crab mentality and others. You name it! There are many of them in the corporate world and yes it’s one of the things you can’t control and have to deal with.

So I declined most of the offer and didn’t entertain the others.

There are other things aside from what I shared above but they are the main ones. In short, I get tired.

For the past 8 years of working hard, I get tired of the corporate life. Tired physically and emotionally.

So I decided to jump.

To take a leap of faith to do things in different way.

And that’s why another thinking and mindset kicks in.

After realizing my passion in personal finance, I was exposed to different learning and different kinds of mindset and thinking. After attending some seminars, reading lots of personal finance related books, lots of success and self-help books, entrepreneurial and business related blogs and books, I realized there’s another way of life. There’s more in life than just working 9 – 5 and getting stuck in a cubicle in the office.

After proving myself that I can make money online working in the comfort of our home I realized there are lots of potential you can support and earn a living without dealing with traffic and struggle to commute going to office and coming back home.

And after having our baby boy, I realized that time flies and I have to make most out of it as hard and as smart as I can. To enjoy quality moments and quality time with my son and my wife. After all, they are the reason why I live. They are my everything.

Honestly, these things are already in my mind even before we got laid off.

I want to escape the rat race and I want freedom!

So what’s my plan now?

As you’ve guess, I’ll be a full-time dad and a full-time househusband for now. On the side, I’ll explore freelancing, blogging and online business on my free time.

Since we’ve built a solid emergency fund, all we need to think is to support our expenses and save a little bit for our baby boy for now. My wife stays on her work since she can work from home and still watch and spend time with us. Our blog earnings will be an additional income aside from her salary.

It’s a big adjustment, and I’m telling you it’s not easy. From budgeting and especially from the mindset. It takes a lot of courage to do this but we’re positive we can make this and it will be more beneficial in the long run.

I firmly believe that sometimes we need to take the leap of faith to make difference in our life. We need to get out of our comfort zone to see the best opportunity on the other side. It might be scary and risky, but that’s where you grow and succeed.

It’s another personal story I shared on this blog. As what I’ve mentioned before, you and this blog are my digital best friend. I hope you get inspired and learn something from this. Let me know your thoughts on the comment section below. Cheers!