I did the stupidest thing. I quit my job. Ok, it might not the worst thing someone could do, but it is stupid.

I have a family to provide. Luckily, since I’m a modern man, not all by myself. In fact, my wife has a higher paying job, than I had. But still, nowadays, you can’t live with only one household income.

And prices are increasing. Although the inflation is eventually getting lower in Austria too, everything is much more expensive than two years ago.

Also, everything is insecure, war, climate change, midlife crisis. Having a secure job sounds calming, but only on first sight. If it makes you uncomfortable being in the office, if body and soul hate it being there, it is the opposite of calming, it is upsetting.

Talking about midlife crisis. It surely played a role in my decision. The search for purpose. Being my own boss, all that certainly pushed me to quit.

The main reason although is this project, this blog. I am very committed to it, but I was not satisfied with my output. I published infrequently and not in the quality I wanted. I blame the lack of time I had, and I am sure, if I can use more time on this project it gets better and successful.

As I wrote in the very first post on this blog, you have to get your life in order to be able to repair the system. 

This is what I try to do. I was 18 years in my old job and for more than 13 years I hated it being there. It was the little things. I felt stuck, the work was boring, I couldn’t develop any skills.

I often tried to do something other than that, but I always failed or life came in between. Now was the time to really change. Maybe I needed the process of one and half decade to finally be able to risk the step. Maybe it is because of my midlife crisis and my age that I know what I want and that I am less afraid and simultaneously more afraid, because I have less time to live.

Quitting my job was so freeing. It gave me a boost of motivation. But of course life came in between once again and slapped me in the face. But here I am trying to master this obstacle, because I want to do this, and I will do this.

Maybe it is because I have a vision of what I want to do. I want to make the world a better place. I want to change the system. At least a little bit. And I want to do it with what I can best, and what I want to do the most.

Writing

This blog will be the base of my future creative solopreneurship. Having the time and resources, I will post more regularly and hopefully the post have an increased quality.

The newsletter will be another big part. There you will read more personal and behind the scenes. If you want to know more about my plans and how the journey goes, subscribe to my newsletter here.

Podcast

There will be a podcast, where I deep dive into the topics I write about. Excellent for all the people, that don’t like to read.

Video

The podcast will also be on YouTube and some more videos also.

One more thing

That’s what I start with. I have further plans, but I will look, where the journey takes me.

Money

Of course, I will need to make money out of this. While I try to keep the majority of my content free, there maybe something like Patreon with extra content. Also, I need to multiply my income streams, that’s why I will use affiliate marketing, ads, sponsorships and what ever comes to mind.

I know this is not very popular, but to make a living in our system I need to do it.

I will be transparent, and I will only accept ads and sponsorships from brands, people and organizations that pass my criteria catalog. Which I will post soon.

I don’t know if I will succeed, but I will try. Come with me and enjoy my success or failure. 

Ian DeBay

My name is Ian DeBay.

I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.