The biggest barrier to entrepreneurial comfort

Don't ditch the check or you'll seriously regret what it does to your family in short order.

Carve out the time like so many others have done. Stop striving for new skills at work and become super efficient at what you have to do. Anyone in a large corporation who's not answering phones should be able to get the meat of their job done in half the standard day or less (just spread out completion to cover yourself). Be a model employee, but in half the time.

There you go: 4 hours a day to work on your own stuff, plus an hour in the morning every morning.

Then choose a pursuit that will fit this approach. Maybe it's not classic entrepreneur such as you did before, launching the next Uber or whatever. But you can always start an online business of some sort.

I'm a 51 year old guy. Kids are gone (but not off the payroll totally) in just the last couple of years, so more time now. But I started my business in 2010 with zero knowledge of anything online. It's profitable and paying some household expenses for the last year (phones, internet, computers, home office expenses) and therefore providing real expense and tax savings that help the family.

It has not been a skyrocket to success, but my wife and I are set to live off of it within the next year (we've worked on lowering the family expenses at the same time). And I'm launching my next business as we speak.

And yes, I have a very comfortable job with a really nice salary. But I still despise working for corporate America and can't wait to leave... not in a dumb way, but when I'm ready.

So the bottom line is: If you want to be an entrepreneur, you'll find some way to do it, even if it doesn't involve venture capital, and even if it takes several years.

Think how much progress you could have made already if you had been doing rather than dreaming?

Every year across the globe, the Founder Institute assists entrepreneurs in this same situation make the leap into entrepreneurship. To get your idea to market will always require some level of sacrifice in time and money, but it can me managed within your current life situation. In 14 weeks, you will know how viable your business idea is and build the relationships to get off the ground.

www.fi.co

I'd also encourage you to check out a website on quintessential careers. It discusses the transition occurring in the workforce (from employee to contract worker) and the various ways people are creating multiple sources of income to get away from "putting all your eggs in one basket (the employer basket)."