Do You Really Need a Bridge Job?

If I could tell you how long I struggled with this, it would probably make you feel a lot better about your situation. You may have an idea that you're excited about and ready to get going on it, and you've just started the whole moonlighting thing.  You might feel a little bad about yourself that you're not ready to take that 100% leap quite yet, but you feel confident it will happen soon.

So instead of just taking a massive leap to start your new venture, you decided to keep your day job.  You know it's not forever, but just until the point where your job is making the money that you can survive from.

Now bridge jobs can be a very good thing.  They can allow you to spend money on your business.  Heck, they even can get you to the point that they allow you to start your own business.  

But here's my warning to you: Don't let it become your crutch job!

You see, that's what I did for a really long time.  I mean like years.  I mean like many, many years. I had a 'bridge' job (aka a crutch).

I worked my ass off.  I managed two different lives: a corporate one and an entrepreneur one.  Growing up on a farm, I had no problem with really, really hard work. I took vacation time to work my business.  I burned myself to a crisp, sold a business, then stood back up and did it again.  

But it was never a bridge job, only a crutch.

What ends up happening is that you're hanging on so tight to that crutch, it becomes harder and harder to let go.  You end up living a double life, like a seriously exhausting double life.  We're talking two LinkedIn profiles, blocking of Facebook statuses from certain people, and constantly monitoring an online presence, just in case someone from the corporate world found out.

Make it a bridge job, not a crutch!

So just like I preach about having an exit plan when you start a business (for your business), you've got to go to set an exit plan for your bridge job.  Or you might be like me when it becomes a 10-year crutch job.  Let me tell you from experience, that's just plain exhausting.