How Sweet It Can Be To Quit Your Job

Until your art pays the bills, you've got to work. But let's stop for a moment and imagine how sweet it must be to quit!

Today, Maria Popova's Brain Pickings featured a resignation letter from Sherwood Anderson when he left his advertising job upon becoming a successful novelist. I love the opening lines:

"You have a man in your employ that I have thought for a long time should be fired. I refer to Sherwood Anderson. He is a fellow of a good deal of ability, but for a long time I have been convinced that his heart is not in his work."

This reminded me with delight of the first time I walked out on a job. Like Sherwood Anderson, I was a writer. Unlike Sherwood Anderson, who quit because he was successful, I quit because my boss had what my mother called an "insect authority complex." He thought he should be in control of the world, but lacking that authority, he bossed his adolescent staff around. The air never tasted as sweet as it did after I threw my apron down and marched out into the night, where I sat with my notebook and wrote an essay about what it means to work for someone.

I had my college tuition to pay, and I was terrified as I sat there holding my pen.

But I kept writing, and writing, every day.

PS. Brain Pickings is a touchstone for daily illumination. If you don't read it already, you should consider starting (and subscribing to the weekly newsletter, which will make your week).

Image from Brain Pickings

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Rita J King is the EVP for Business Development at Science House, a cathedral of the imagination in Manhattan focused on the art and science of doing business. She is a strategist who specializes in the development of collaborative culture by making organizational culture visible so it can be measured and transformed. She is a senior advisor to The Culture Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. She makes Mystery Jars, writes about the future for Fast Company and invents story architecture, characters and novel technologies for film and TV as a futurist for the Science and Entertainment Exchange. Follow @RitaJKing on Twitter.