This post will likely doxx me, but it is what it is.
I'm at a pivotal point here. I'm an Associate in a sell-side commodity trading seat - one that many would kill to get into - and not sure whether I want to continue down this path. My performance lately has been subpar; I've been "doing my job", but not going above and beyond.
I had a small-scale social enterprise that I started up during the pandemic and ran as a hobby over the past few years. I've been mulling the idea of leaving the firm and trying to build it out into a veritable multi-million dollar business. This would require a drastic change in my life in terms of location, lifestyle, etc. and by no means it is a guarantee that things will work out.
I spoke with my MD on Friday and let him know that I was considering the idea of entrepreneurship outside the firm, and that I would not be averse to being put forward for a layoff if another round of cuts is forthcoming. My MD has been pretty upfront with me; a few months back, he actually encouraged me to look around within the firm for other opportunities given that I performed extremely well as an Analyst, but can't seem to find the necessary curiosity about the market to succeed as a trader. I think there's a reasonable chance that my fate hasn't been sealed yet, and if I speak to him soon, I can stay on within the firm or even in this same seat if I prove myself.
I'm not sure why my performance has been so subpar lately. I had some health issues over the past few years and I think a form of mild depression that probably clouded my view to some degree - but I think that's only one piece of a larger puzzle. Maybe COVID and WFH factored into it too. Who knows.
Objectively, this is a phenomenal role with a phenomenal team and great WLB (45 hrs/wk). It's also in a LCOL location outside of NYC, with NYC-equivalent pay, which is rare. I keep oscillating between whether I want to continue on this trajectory or not. I wouldn't mind trying something different, but I probably would never end up in a seat (or on a trajectory) as good as the one I am currently in. My gf is also here, and she's OK with me moving somewhere remote to run the business, but it will be hard.
Never thought I would end up asking WSO for potentially life-changing advice, but here we are.
Thanks.
Screw it, go for it. You're probably sagging a bit in your current role because it sounds like you're just bored now and this other venture sounds way more interesting to you. Flipside, knowing how the universe tends to work, I wouldn't be shocked if your MD refuses your offer to quietly be culled and wants to keep you. Self preservation, thinking they're trying to avoid litigious behaviors, or even just rubber stamping you as at least meeting expectations even if you're not some new subject in a chapter of a Market Wizards book. Not to mention, he snaked the question by talking about keeping you in the firm as a whole at least in some other position rather than showing you the door according to what you said.
Otherwise, just buckle up and mentally prepare yourself to ride a cubicle for the next twenty years out of simple convenience and risk aversion (to keep it WSO adjacent). Sure, it's safe and what you already know. But would it be fulfilling? And yes, I know the calculus changes when/if you get married and start a family and there's no shame in that.
Thanks for the response - appreciate it. To clarify, my MD had suggested that I look into other opportunities within the firm a few months back; it was only on Friday that I said I would be OK with a layoff, so I appreciate he gave me time to look around vs. just cutting me loose without a warning. I've added a few words to clarify.
I wouldn't quit -- yet. Since your role is relatively low hours (45 hours) I'd do the startup as a side gig (work at night).
Only quit if you know that this has the beginnings of taking off (such as getting VC funding). What stage are you at? Do you have many users? Have you even began to make money yet? These are all key questions to answer.
You have to realize that startups, especially social media ones (I presume from what you described), have an extremely high rate of failure. However, if you believe you have a very good chance of success I'd go for it. From what you described though, I wouldn't quit yet.
Thanks. By “social enterprise”, I meant “socially-focused enterprise”, i.e. positive externalities. It’s actually a physical goods business that’s going to have a brick-and-mortar operation in a very remote location - which is why it’s such a binary decision. I’ve considered hiring people, but it’s not feasible.
So far, I’ve had numerous paying customers but it’s a very low-margin business and scale is critical; which is partly why I think a brick-and-mortar presence is so important. I do have some data from operating it as a hobby, so I’m not going into this thing completely blind (only partially!)
and you're not able to work on this after work?
Just be careful with the screw it go for it advice, entrepreneurship is hard and it can take a while to actually figure shit out in some cases, if you don't have money saved to weather the storm for the still figuring shit out phase then it may be difficult for this to work. Also think about if you are really sure that you want to commit to this shit. Would you commit to it for some unspecified long amount of time even if it wasn't very financially rewarding for you to commit to this shit? If the answer is no and you are just doing it cause you think it might be a good way to make money then that might work for some people but that's not what works for me, I would give up on shit and have done so if I didn't actually care about it enough to see it through even when shit was going tough. I've been grinding on an entrepreneurial type of project (music project - you can say it is like winning the lottery or something to have a successful music project but you could also say the same thing about starting a successful tech startup, for every tech startup that someone tries on some level to start, there are probably very few that actually achieve anything significant, and there are factors for both a music project and a tech startup that you can try and control for in order to increase your odds of success) for 7-8 months and although I feel like things could change soon for me with the project with the right connection mostly (which I am actively trying to forge - not just sitting here waiting for connections to happen lol), I realize that it may take a while before this thing really takes off and before I really make any money from the project or make it a viable business. Your thing sounds like it could be expensive, how are you going to fund this? Can you try and figure out the funding side if you haven't already before you quit your job?
1 paragraph for all of this? Really??
Try and find some folks on LinkedIn who have done this before and ask for a quick phone call. Any search with ‘founder’ and ‘investment banking’ will likely yield some results. As an idea this sounds great and I like the YOLO element - would caveat by saying make sure you get some primary sources on the experience (particularly since you would need to move)
Why does this idea sound so great?
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