If you're starting up and want to ship a certain product, and you're looking to raise money for it, is your investor pitch going to be "So product A is what I'm really passionate about and want to build as it solves a problem that I deeply care about. However, I'm not able to convince people to join me in building it. So, let me build product B instead, which is at best vaguely related to A, that I can easily hire talented people for, and once I have them and product B is shipped, I will get back to building product A and ship it."? It won't be if you're not expecting to be laughed out of the room.

Yet, we make that pitch ever so often.

I have made that pitch to myself and I have heard many of my friends make that very pitch to me. "So what I'm really passionate about and want to do in life is A. However, I'm not able to convince myself or the people around me that I can do this and still maintain my social standing. So, I'll do B until I secure my social standing and can afford to do A without impacting my social standing irrespective of how I fare in doing A."

'A' in this case can be anything from wanting to startup, wanting to create music, wanting to write a novel, wanting to be an actor, wanting to be a footballer, wanting to travel the world, wanting to be a chef, or as made famous by the movie '3 Idiots' wanting to be a wildlife photographer. And 'B' is the regular corporate job that pays well and firms up your social standing while coming nowhere as close to getting you as excited as 'A' does.

A wise man name Ayodeji Awosika said this:

"Success happens when you quit living your life to please everyone around you. Success happens when you quit listening to the noise of the world and focus on what's important to you. Success happens when you quit thinking reality is anything but what you want it to be. Quit viewing the world with the preconceived notions you were taught growing up. Quit being 'realistic'. Quit worrying and start living."

Quitting doesn't mean completely letting go and doing only one thing - the thing that you care about. Although that is the ideal state to get to, going there overnight is like having an overdose of something. And an overdose of anything is, by definition, not good. It is like telling a kid who has done nothing but play and goof around until class ten to drop everything and make her only activity for the next couple of years as studying for an entrance exam. And that happens, unfortunately.

Quitting is a habit, a state of mind in a sense. Take the negative connotation out of the word 'Quit' and all it becomes is a prioritization tool. This way, when you 'quit' something, you only do as much as it takes to get what you want out of it, like a grad student working behind the counter at a McDonald's. She's not looking to be better than all the others behind the counter and get a promotion and please her boss. She's just doing enough to pick up some money that will help pay her tuition fees.

The time to listen to Ayodeji Awosika and the time to quit is now.