20+ People Who Proved Quitting Can Be the Best Decision You’ll Ever Make

Many of us live on autopilot: a college degree, a good job, climbing the career ladder... But what do you do when you reach the top and suddenly realize that the ladder is against the wrong wall? Some people change their lives while still young. Others do it after 15 years in accounting.

We’ve put together honest stories from people who left their “normal” life for ceramics, music, and even missions to Mars. These are stories of fear, being broke, support (or lack of it), and that feeling of freedom that engulfs you when you finally start living your own life.

• My previous job was seriously affecting my health. So I don’t regret leaving it. I wanted to pursue production assistant work in the film/television industry. I got a job as a waiter’s assistant and even that was better than my previous job. © Thin_Sherbet358 / Reddit
• Quit my job, signed up for English and Spanish classes, renewed my gym membership, started all the courses I hadn’t completed, decided to start a blog, and for the first time in my life, I resolved to dedicate a year entirely to myself. © taya.kudrina
• For 11 years, I worked as an engineer at a large energy company. Then I just quit to dedicate my life to doing what I love. I work with leather, making sturdy, long-lasting, and incredibly cozy products. A year has passed.
  There are challenges, sometimes it’s very tough. But it was worth it. Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams. It’s all possible. © LostAngelAisha / Pikabu

• My wife quit her job as an accountant, where she worked for 15 years, and started... making soap. Naturally, I was against it. How much could she possibly earn from making soap? Plus, she stopped accruing pension benefits once she quit.
  I didn’t support my wife, and she got upset with me. We had never had such a fight before, and she even moved out with the kids to her mother’s place. I didn’t try to stop them, thinking, “When the money runs out, they’ll return.”
  But during this time, one of my friends started courting my wife. At first, she refused, but then she reciprocated his feelings. Now she’s filing for divorce. I look at their photos on social media, and my wife looks happy, and so do the kids.
  She’s still making soap, and apparently, he’s supporting them. I could have done this too, my wife never made as much money as I did anyway. But I was stingy, and now I’m paying the price for it. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• My wife and I sold everything and moved to Tahiti to open a club for virtual games. Honestly, there were a lot of problems and difficulties. We closed down several times, but always reopened.
  We’re now planning on heading back to Canada. But it was a wonderful dream, even if we couldn’t fulfill it completely. © Another*****Canadian / Reddit
• I worked in IT for 6 years and then I quit. Now I’m going to walk dogs for money. Simply because I chose to be happy. © its_bekish

• I have much more free time for my hobbies. And I don’t feel like being hit by a bus is more fun than going to work. At the same time, I make about 3 times less and have some financial difficulties.
  I wouldn’t say I regret my choice. But I wouldn’t say it’s all rainbows and butterflies either. © pink_ghost_cat / Reddit
• I worked as a manager for many years. I was extremely tired, but my family kept insisting, saying how lucky I was to have a job with my salary. I thought: well, at least I’ll try different hobbies. I started sewing and making beaded necklaces.
  Everything suddenly turned upside down when a coworker came up to me and asked, “Hey, you sew, right? I want to make a gift for my sister, can you make her a toy — a copy of her cat?” I said, “No problem.” I sewed it, brought it, all my coworkers saw it, and it took off!
  Order after order, and then they showed it to their friends. And at one point, I realized that I could easily earn a living this way. I quit, although my family, of course, tried to dissuade me!
• My husband has a degree but had a hard time holding down his office job. It was terrible and depressing for him to work a regular 9-5.
  He recently quit his job and started working at a dojo teaching self-defense and streaming video games in his off hours. While looking for a new house, we were actually asked, “Can he get his old job back until after signing?” Money will come eventually and my own position is secure with quarterly bonuses so we don’t hurt.
  It felt really bad at first but I came to realize it’s more important for me to have a happy and healthy husband than a depressed but wealthy. © DarlingPotPrincess / Reddit

• I marvel at how some people can completely change their lives in just one day. I once worked with a funny guy who didn’t understand a thing about the tools we were repairing. Nobody knew what he was doing in that job, why he was there, and probably he didn’t understand it either.
  One day he just vanished, they said he quit. 6 months later, I found out that he opened his own gallery downtown, where wealthy people look at paintings and can buy something at a steep price. Just like that, one day he’s fixing construction tools, the next day he’s opening his art gallery. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• I quit my job in industrial engineering to pursue music. On some days, I’m all right; I work on my craft, publish music, and go live with a set or two. On other days, I dread; my mind wanders all over the place from personal to my financial situation that I end up crying or having anxiety attacks. © kakamuttai / Reddit
• At 20, I was guaranteed a great career. I worked in logistics with a fantastic salary. Sounds like a dream, right?
  But I felt like I wasn’t living my own life. I took a risk and left. I seriously thought I’d be living on just bread. But when you find your calling, you can’t do anything else.
  I took up ceramics. Now my income is growing again. But it’s not the price I’m selling my time and energy for. It’s the price for doing something I love. © t.sapronova.ceramic

• Once I got really fed up with working with people, so much that I just quit. After some time, I had a dream about working at a factory — a light and cheerful dream. So I just went and did it.
  I got a job in a day, went through onboarding, and now I’m sitting in my own office, soldering microchips. My education is in a completely different field, but it’s not for nothing I grew up with my grandfather.
  The work is strictly from 8 to 5, I don’t have to communicate with anyone, I only see my boss, who doesn’t talk much. It’s pure bliss! © Not everyone will understand / VK
• When I quit, people asked me, “Why? You had a good position, stable salary, prospects.” But no one knew what was happening inside me. Constant stress was breaking me. Hormonal imbalances, excess weight, hardly getting out of bed.
  I quit and breathed freely. Then almost immediately I found another job where everything was okay. And then I discovered that I was pregnant. So everything’s great. © dariga_aituar
• What do you know about an existential crisis? At 27, I quit a hated job and walked 370 miles across Northern Spain. Completely alone. Just a backpack, a few hundred euros for lodging and food, and my head full of thoughts. © ulzhan.co

• Amazing. Never been better. I quit the grind of being a freelance musician, went back to school, and now I work on Mars missions for NASA.
  It wasn’t without sacrifice, though. Engineering school is rough at any age. Still sorting out some of the bad habits I used as coping mechanisms to get through it all. © LiveFromJezero / Reddit
• Worked in an office: numbers, bills, reports from morning to night. One day, I accidentally overheard the boss saying, “Where else would she go? Give her some more assignments.” I gathered my strength and started planning my exit strategy.
  The day X comes. I walk into the boss’s office and hand in my resignation. He smirks, “Who would want you anyway?” At this moment, I put my own math problem book down on the table in front of him with a thud. He didn’t know that I had filled my schedule with students over those few months.
  The kids come to me for my signature puzzles and unique problems. Now I work from home, love the kids, and have a great income. Let the boss find a new sucker who “won’t go anywhere.”
• I decided that dreams must be fulfilled. So, I quit my job, packed up all my things, moved to another city, and got myself a raccoon. Landed a job as a pastry chef, which I always dreamed of, and spend my free time visiting museums, theaters, and strolling through old streets.
  I’m doing everything I want, and I’m happy. People, life is short, so do whatever you want! Live your dreams because you might not get another chance like this! © Not everyone will understand / VK

• At 25, I suddenly got the urge to drop everything and finally dedicate myself to creating cartoons like I always dreamed of. At the moment, I have a concept and a script for a pilot, the first character designs are done, and I’m working on the storyboard. I’m planning to create something like a couple-minute pilot animation to see how it works out. © esfenial_animation
• My mom loves to cook. She cooks deliciously, and most importantly, with joy. She works as an accountant. Her job stresses her out a lot, and she’s constantly tired. My dad and I kept persuading her to quit, but it never worked out.
  So my father, from whom I’ve never heard a bad word, went to my mom’s workplace and berated her boss. Naturally, my mom got fired. At first, she was angry, but then she even felt happy. Now she bakes cakes and cupcakes to order and is very happy. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• I once became friends with a coworker. She wasn’t really ambitious, but she was good at her job and quickly climbed the career ladder. She was appointed department head, and we went to our first briefing, but she wasn’t there.
  Everyone was shocked and didn’t understand what was happening, and then I received a photo from her where she was in a bee protective suit. And a message that said, “I just bought 3 beehives. I don’t need this job, I’m going to make honey. Come over for tea.”
  Now she regularly gives me jars of honey and shudders when she remembers her office life. I want to chase my dream like her, too.

And here are more stories about people who took a huge leap and changed their careers after 30.