Dude. I'll offer you excellent health insurance if you come work for me at our offices 5 days a week.

I thought you were supposed to be 14... how the heck do you have an office and employees at age 14? That's flipping crazy...

-D

Keep something in your back pocket. I was in a similar position but I was IN a cubicle with other developers, right next to tech support. It was noisy, I kept getting interrupted, etc and it was hard to concentrate. After the boss caught wind of a project I was developing on my own he bought in, but I still couldn't convince them I'd be more productive in an office.

In short differences came, the distractions were too much and I quit. Sure enough next day I get a call offering me the office if I come back. Nobody wants to work for an employer who holds off the best for their employees and tries to use it for bargaining power. But YOU could keep something in your back pocket in case this happens to you.

Do they know that you are basically ready to quit over the office thingy, or is that just a mental promise you've made yourself?

Nope, they have no idea. That would be a "push" that would get me to quit (similar to what Dan said when the company he worked at was bought out).

Do they know that you are basically ready to quit over the office thingy, or is that just a mental promise you've made yourself?

That is exactly what I am going through. I have been doing IM plus the day job for so long that I can't tell anymore if my productivity will drop when I quit.

Plus, like you, I learn lots of cool new things at the job so it seems "dumb" to quit.

There has been talk for the last year or so of moving me out of my office and into a cubicle. I am already making a commitment that if that happens, I am quitting after 30 days.

There has also been talk for several months of moving me out of my office, and not into a cubicle. Out in the open. If that happens I am immedaitely putting in my two weeks notice.

It's tough to know exactly when to quit unless something drastic happens.

First of all, congrats for this blog, I just read about 12 entries, I´m extremely impressed about your content, keep doing this work and great thing will keep coming

I know you in person and we already discussed this subject in person, but I can tell you a great advice here man, I´ve been in your shoes.

Let me tell you my story in as less word as I can:

I worked for an internet company for 4 years, I had a great work, great treat, great income, I was learning a bunch of stuff about internet marketing that help to get where I am today, I was very happy with my work, I was growing, I had flexibility on times, many great things...

I couldnt let go the work even do I was making an extra income with some Internet Marketing stuff, because all of that...

Than I set my own goal, when I can do X amount of money on the outside buisness (IM) I will quit this job, and work on this full time.

Guess what?

That never happend and years kept going.

I was very fortunate on what happend next.

THe company was sold to another internet company, one of the largest japanese internet companies, actually the 2nd one after yahoo Japan.

Everything went down, My growth on the company inmeditly stopped, the learining as well, everything I liked about the medium company stop, It was not fun anymore, even do I was still doing a good income I wasnt neither motivated or excited anymore, so after a few months I quit my job, not because the IM side biz was doing good, because Iw as looking for soemthign else that will make me happy, then I took another Job that was a HUGE mistake, I only last 3 months in a job that was full of false promises and was all BS.

Everything right here sound very scary I was in the middle of nowhere, with nothing on my hands, no job, no IM side biz, no nothing.

But I told myself ok so here is my chance to start give a REAL shot to my IM stuff, I had enought money saved on my bank account to last 3 months with out getting another job, so I setup that 3 months deadline and worked my ass out to really try to figure out what can I do if I dedicate not only my full tiem, but my full energy to this IM thing.

What happend?

You know...

I´m doing great! better than I ever imagined!

What I figure out after all this experince?

All the ilussion of the safety job, and check every 15 days on my hands keep my blinded of the real opportunity.

I always tought that I can do both things at the same time and evetually replace my job for full time IM when the money from IM will justify that action.

The real truth is that when you have the talent and knowledge and you work hard, you know it, and grea thing will ocure!

The thing is that is not really only about the hours you will be able to dedicate to IM if you quit your job, is about the amount of energy you will have available for this.

Believe me Robert, I know you, I know how much talent and knwledge you have, I cant find another way to convicne you to quit tomorrow to your job and dedicate all that energy on the IM business!

Anyhow Its great to keep in touch with you and again your blog is amazing I love the content.

Warm reagrds from Mexico
Dan

What's your definition of work?

Good luck with the certs (now there's a market!)