Molly Graham: preference

Transcript context

…Okay, that's great. I'm glad I don't overuse it. It just feels like it comes up again and again, and I think your point about the runway and the finances is such an important one because that's a very real practical question. One thing I did when I took time off, I took a year off after I left my job. What helped me was I just created a runway goal for myself. I'm just like, "Okay, here's what it's going to cost me for six months or a year to live without any income. Am I comfortable just burning through these tens of thousands of dollars to explore and see something new emerge?" And so you just have to feel good. "Okay, yes, I'm going to burn all that money and that's part of it." Yeah, that's exactly the exercise. You're saying "runway" I say "burn rate", so we both were raised inside of companies, incentive tech, but I think it is do the math, right? What can you afford? And it's both what can you afford and still feel safe? Because sometimes, I mean, again, I think that is different for everyone, but it is such an important set of math to do because, A, a lot of times that number is smaller than you think it is, then your brain makes it out to be if you have this sort of existential financial anxiety versus, I always say, "Specific financial anxiety is much more useful than existential financial anxiety. " And some friends are leaving jobs and I'll be like, "Hey, your number is 5K or 10K a month. You have to believe that you can get a consulting gig that will pay you that. Do you believe that?" And it's like, "Either yes or no." And then, "Okay, either we're doing it or we're not. The other part of this J- Curve that I think is really important to touch on is this idea of for the first six or nine months, you're going to be at the bottom of the J curve falling, still falling. And some projects don't last that long and then you're like, "Okay, total failure. I never emerged from this fall." So, is there any advice there? Just, how do you create that enough space to give you a chance to start to un-fall?…

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