Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: juansolo on July 23, 2012, 09:10:36 AM

Title: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: juansolo on July 23, 2012, 09:10:36 AM
Handed my resignation in this morning.

For many reasons to be honest, but easily summed up as my sanity and soul.

No job to go to, but a bit saved up. Gonna spend the next 6-12 months playing around with pedals, generally doing some creative stuff. Then look for other work out of IT. If all else fails I'll drive a van. We shall see how the future pans out.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: psy on July 23, 2012, 09:12:19 AM
Good luck man. :)
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Fourth Feline on July 23, 2012, 09:28:08 AM
A brave move - and ( in my experience) a good one.   Some things just need to come to an end - and life is too short to live in a perpetual suffocation.  However you end up making a living a year from now,  the interim will surely refresh and inspire you as a human being - and set the scene for a richer life. Meanwhile, enjoy the immediate few months, of doing what you enjoy.  All the very best !  :)
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Twinfan on July 23, 2012, 09:39:18 AM
As you know John, I did a similar thing around 12 months ago - life's too short not to enjoy it.

All the very best!
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: WezV on July 23, 2012, 09:48:31 AM
i also did it a little over 12 months ago - still not quite where i want to be, but i at least feel i am on the right track

Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: gwEm on July 23, 2012, 09:51:06 AM
I congratulate you on your move!

I sometimes think about taking a sabbatical myself. But fact I started a new job at the end of last year, and am quite enjoying it so far.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Philly Q on July 23, 2012, 01:03:45 PM
Brave move, and I hope it works out well for you!  :D

Not something I would ever dare to do, I wish I could but I fear I'd never get another job at my age and with my less-than-impressive CV.

Mind you, I could probably sell all my guitars and Warmoth bits and live off the proceeds for a year...
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Twinfan on July 23, 2012, 01:04:51 PM
Only ONE year?  :lol:
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: 38thBeatle on July 23, 2012, 01:31:29 PM
I admire you guys who do this. Best of luck.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Philly Q on July 23, 2012, 01:43:56 PM
Only ONE year?  :lol:

Well, I was trying not to big it up too much!  :lol:

I've only got a handful of guitars with any real value, the rest of them would go for buttons. But I guess all those necks and bodies might add up to more than I realise!

Given the state of my pension provision, I may need 'em....
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Frank on July 23, 2012, 01:52:14 PM
I got out of IT four years ago for the sake of my sanity. Didn't want to end up back here (http://www.kineticnorth.com/StuffAndTing/LoonyBin/Default.aspx).
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: juansolo on July 23, 2012, 02:07:36 PM
I got out of IT four years ago for the sake of my sanity. Didn't want to end up back here (http://www.kineticnorth.com/StuffAndTing/LoonyBin/Default.aspx).

Reckon I was on my way there. A couple of 1-1's ago with my manager, when discussing courses he suggested I might want to go on an anger management course...
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Frank on July 23, 2012, 02:16:44 PM
Would you do short IT contracts? As a programmer I quite enjoyed doing 6 weeks in one company, couple of months somewhere else then having a break and sitting round at home til the money dried up. Contracting was far less stressful than full-time IT, you don't get involved in office politics and you're your own man. And the money's a lot better. Just a thought.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: juansolo on July 23, 2012, 03:01:45 PM
It's definitely an option.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: dave_mc on July 23, 2012, 05:26:35 PM
good luck :)
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: richard on July 23, 2012, 06:33:38 PM
Very best of luck to you. I've been on the verge of telling my employers (the government) where they can shove their job but at my age and with my lack of experience I'd probably never work again. It's driving me insane working for a government that despises the people who elected it.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Brow on July 24, 2012, 05:32:59 PM
I did the same thing myself just before Christmas last year.

My badly paid, lowly Admin job was 1 step away from putting me in the nuthouse and nearly cost me my 10yr relationship and my house with my girlfriend so I took a pitiful redundancy payout and left on Christmas eve.

I managed to find a job and started again by the 23rd of January so luckilly I wasn't out of work too long.

All the best for the future mate.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Andrew W on July 24, 2012, 10:36:49 PM
Best of luck and I salute you for taking that decision. I've only ever walked away from a job with nothing planned once and it was the best decision I made that year. I found until I was free I couldn't think clearly about what I wanted to do next and once I was away from work things became clearer much more quickly. All the best!
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: frankus on July 31, 2012, 04:15:04 PM
I got out of IT four years ago for the sake of my sanity. Didn't want to end up back here (http://www.kineticnorth.com/StuffAndTing/LoonyBin/Default.aspx).

Reckon I was on my way there. A couple of 1-1's ago with my manager, when discussing courses he suggested I might want to go on an anger management course...

I've been on anger management training - I volunteered ... what became very apparent very quickly was that getting me angry is the easiest way to get me to do stuff - so I'd waste time suppressing anger or I'd over-react and feel guilt - pretty much anyone I'd ever spent time with had learnt to exploit that. I'd really recommend exploring it - see where that rabbit hole goes ;)

I also work in IT and frankly it's naff, I've got a family to support so I keep at the treadmill.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: PhilKing on August 01, 2012, 11:00:25 PM
Hi John,  I hope it all works out for you.  I know you've been thinking about this for a bit.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: BlankPlank on August 02, 2012, 01:11:40 AM
Also been thinking about this. Isn't it funny how everyone wants out of IT? Good luck mate.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: MDV on August 02, 2012, 01:32:26 AM
Been there done that. In all seriousness, if you have to, you have to. Just make sure your arse is covered in terms of fallback plan/s
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: JJretroTONEGOD on August 02, 2012, 01:36:31 AM
 You have made a wise choice from leaving, I used to work in office work also and found it soul destroying.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: jpfamps on August 02, 2012, 11:00:54 PM
Good luck.

Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Modular1 on September 01, 2012, 01:52:27 AM
Good luck mate. I'm thinking of doing the same.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: juansolo on September 01, 2012, 10:35:35 AM
The good news is that I'm getting loads of pedals done at the moment.

Bad news is that at some point I will have to get another job and it's likely going to be in IT again.
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: Twinfan on September 01, 2012, 10:51:58 AM
Darn it  :(
Title: Re: Liberating, if a little scary
Post by: juansolo on September 01, 2012, 11:20:15 AM
To be honest, everything I enjoy about building pedals would vanish if I tried to make it a cost effective living. Shame really.

Essentially to make money out of it you need to take a popular circuit, say a Klone and modify it ever so slightly so you're not treading on copyright. Then get the boards made by the Chinese, your boxes screen printed somewhere and assemble big batches of the buggers here (assembled by hand in England...). Then you can slap your own bootweak name of choice on the front, wrap it in flowery BS regarding all the R&D you've done to come up with this new revolutionary stomp that'll make people jizz their pants when they hear it, slap a huge price tag on it and away you go. It would mean ignoring all your morals, but there are plenty of examples of this going on right now.

Likewise doing anything related to motorsport. Even if you own and run a top finishing team, you ain't going to make much out of it. Even then, you'll probably ruin it for yourself also.

The sad reality is that I can make a lot more money sat on my arse wasting my life away in front of a VDU. It could be much worse I suppose. But when I've eaten through a reasonable amount of my savings, I suspect that's the conclusion I'll inevitably come to.

Still, ain't going to let that spoil my time off.