Ask HN: Do you have the courage to abandon your high paying job?

Take a year of unpaid sabbatical leave. If the company you work for actually wants to keep you around, they'll give you this opportunity to take a career break to really have a go at something different.

It works for you and for the company. You get to go out there and see what it's like for startups, the challenges, etc. And then apply those lessons internally.

I know lots of people in their 40's and 50's who have done this, with exactly the same golden handcuffs you're talking about. Some of them came back, and rewarded the company's trust with a revitialised vigour. Others decided to leave and pursue their chosen option.

Example: A guy I know was a senior Account Manager at a major telco in Australia. He decided to start a scuba diving business in Thailand. He took 6 months to 'test the waters' (sorry, that was a terrible pun) and decided that was his dream.

Life is short. Live it to the full.

Most company can’t leave a position open for 1 year. If they can , then they probably don’t need this person anymore.

Don't... Most jobs suck. There's no way around it. Most jobs have aspects that you just don't want to do. That's why you get paid rather than you pay. You need to figure out how to make your current job fit your needs, financial and psychological.

One thing you can do is to decide how much it takes for you to retire in a more affordable part of the country and work until you reach it at the fastest rate.

Starting a successful business is harder than what you imagine and you'll be surprised how quickly it sucks up your money. Don't put your self in a situation where you have to find whatever job comes along because you are desperate for money.

I’ve been in this exact same situation. My best advise would be to start your business aside while maintaining your current job. Do not quit until you have some sort of version #1 of your product or whatever that is. You need data before making your desicion. I planned everything in my head but my steps were way too vague. I will build this kind of products or I’m even gonna try that business that has nothing to do with tech since I have these extra skills. That’s BS. In reality the only smooth transision from a guaranteed paycheck to your own net profite is huge. I lost too much time “trying out things” rather that executing tasks that were already planned ahead of time for a specific business. A business I knew from a fact that would generate an income right away based on feedback or prior experiences. In other words, time was the only missing variable in achieving those steps. In which case it would make total sense to quit your fulltime job to complete your tasks. Again, I didn’t have the data prior to leaving my job so I was running off of guesses and hope.

Back to reality after running out of savings and after freaking out, I took a huge slap in the face interviewing for 30 companies... trying to get the same job I hated before, having to go through all the painful and stressful interviews while seing my bank account getting closer to $0. At the end of the day I took a huge pay cut, I’m no longer working for a top tech company and I feel like I took 5 steps backwards in my 9-5 career. There are hundreds of young candidates out there who have the same skills, same background etc. And they all want your job. I don’t have any savings and I’m back at a crapy job at an average tech company. That sucks, but at least I still know I will ot retire from a 9-5 job in 20 years from now. I will try over and over until I’m able to generate a sufficent income from my own business. I had to go through this experience in order for me to learn something. Today I know exactly what to do next. Just need to recover from that free fall.

Avoid drastic moves. The older I get the more I realize most “drastic move” stories are bs PR pieces. Think how you can move in the direction you want to go in steps. Move to a cheaper location: see if you can move to a satellite office or work remote. No, then look at other jobs you could interview at in the area you want to move to. Translate your FANG experience into a career jump. Then you will have experience and connections in the area, so if your business flounders you have options to fall back on and aren’t starting cold. Starting your business: find a job with better work life balance and lay the foundation for the jump in your spare time. Focus on the some money path vs. the a lot of money path. See if there are people in the area you move to who can help. Take steps and avoid jumps. But it sounds like you should start moving in this direction now so you don’t get so fed up at work that you make the move in a reactionary fashion. Good luck and godspeed!