“Don’t make excuses. Make things happen. Make changes. Then make history.”

Recently I came to a point in my life, more specifically my career, where some big changes need to be made.  I was ‘t happy in my current position for many reasons – not agreeing with management, burned out with too much work and most importantly, wanting to do something completely different.

Over the last 5 years I had worked as  a web developer for a group of radio stations.  I started out as a graphics and content guy, creating images for promotion and adding contests to the websites.  I was then promoted to assistant manager of our digital products and finally the head manager of the digital department.  My last promotion came with a lot of responsibility and a really big raise, which made the decision even harder.  In the end though it came down to timing and what I really wanted to do.

I have been trading the stock market for approximately the last 3 years and instantly realized it was a perfect opportunity.  Up until now, I have traded as much as possible around my work, but working an 8-5  job it’s very hard to day trade.  So my decision was to continue to work a job I no longer enjoyed, but be safe and make more money than I ever have before; or take a big risk, make some big changes and go for what I ultimately want to do.

As you probably already guessed, I decided it was finally time to make some big moves and go for what I truly wanted to do with my life!  My first step was to find a 2nd shift job so I could focus on trading during the day.  Everything seemed to fall in to place as I got a call back on the first job I applied for that would fit my new plan.  After a few interviews, I got the job and everything was set.  I then left my job, only months after a promotion and making nearly $40k/year for a job that pays slightly less.  It might not sound like a smart decision, but in the big picture, it’s something I had to do.

I am 1 week in to the new job and have been in training hours during the day, so I have not started my plan just yet.  This week I will be on hours of 12-8PM, so I am going to trade the morning session with paper money to get back in to the routine.  Finally, next week I am hoping I will be on my 2:45-11:15pm shift which will allow me to trade nearly the whole market day.

The Goal:  Be a full time trader by the end of the year 12/31/2012.