⚡ Get All Content for 20% Off ⚡

The Day I Traded in the Suit One rainy day in London, an entrepreneur-to-be realized the more he succeeded at his job, the more he felt a failure at his calling.

By Jake Fuentes

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

My suit was wet. The worst thing about London is the month of February. Winter in London is the sun setting at 4 pm, endless clouds, constant rain, zero snow. The clouds vanquish the sun so completely that nights in London are sometimes brighter than the days, the city lights being reflected back down by the impenetrable veil. By the end of February, it's been so dark, and so cold, for so long that everything is damp and no one is happy.

Related: 10 Questions to Ask Before Quitting Your Day Job to Run Your Own Company

But today was different for me. On this particularly dank, dark day, my group at Visa had signed one of the biggest mobile payments partnerships in history. Vodafone was our partner and we had beat out a heroic, last-minute push to steal the deal by our largest competitor. Hundreds of millions of dollars were being invested, sleepless nights were paying off, mountains were moving, and the world was changing.

It was a good day, but I had this nagging feeling that it wasn't time well spent. Why didn't I feel I was having the impact I worked to have? When I arrived home at my flat overlooking Covent Garden, I sat down at my computer to finish a wireframe I was working on. Totally unrelated to my work at Visa, I had a product in my head that I believed would make the problem of managing money easier for people like me. I was building a prototype of a simple mobile application, designed to replace traditional budgeting with an automatic cash flow. It was totally extracurricular, but I couldn't get it out of my head. Was it weird that I felt more fulfilled working on my little product than I did on a massive deal?

I want to help people. I'm extremely fortunate to be in a position where I can choose a career in the first place. It's important to me that I give back what I can, maximizing any positive impact I can have on the world. And that's what bothered me about what I was doing for a big corporation, one that processed 10% of world GDP. The stated purpose of our project, while it had the possibility of helping people, was "to drive incremental revenue for Visa." That purpose may have been the best thing for the corporation, but that's not what I considered the best use of my time. I wrote a simple equation on a napkin:

traded in suit equation

The best moments I could spend are when I personally had a big impact on a project that changed the lives of millions of people in a fundamental way, and it could all happen tomorrow. Clearly it wasn't going to happen exactly that way, and I needed to make a living as well, but I felt that pursuing impact was the right place to start. Nowhere in my equation is purely driving revenue for the business, though revenue may be a byproduct of impact.

Related: Can You Afford to Quit Your Day Job?

I thought about the following things:

Personal contribution. If I were not there, what would happen differently? Would the project not exist at all, or would it happen anyway, exactly the same way?

Depth of impact. Will someone's life be changed by what I do? There are lots of ways to measure how lives are changed, but I wanted to work on something that solved a real problem for real people, not just made money for shareholders.

Scale. Bigger is better. That is why, rather than running a shop or restaurant, I lean towards technology-enabled businesses that can reach millions of people .

Time. My most valuable asset. Less is more.

While my work at Visa had the potential to do good, social impact was never an objective. That meant that it would probably take too long and any impact it did make would be shallow. I had no idea if my side project was going to succeed, but I also knew there were precious few companies in the finance space that truly valued positive impact. To go out on my own risked failure and wasted time but the status quo posed the same threat, only with better healthcare and retirement plans.

I looked at the slowly drying suit I was wearing. I thought about what the suit represents: influence, establishment, and the statement that the market is rewarding you for what you do. But it also represents structure, security, and an environment where you walk only where others have trod. I was part of the machine, serving the interests of that machine. I was happy to be a cog, as long as that machine was doing large amounts of good at a massive scale but it wasn't. To change the machine from the inside would take more time than I had.

The suit would not satisfy my sense of urgency, so I had to trade it in. For what, I didn't quite know yet. I hung up the suit, reached for a pair of jeans, and went back to work on the prototype that would become Level Money. Denim is the journeyman's uniform, the attire of those who are searching and hacking their own path. Perhaps I would return to the suit one day, but I needed to know what I could do without it. I didn't have many answers, but I knew I was starting to ask the right questions.

Related: Thinking of Quitting? Remember, the Sun Will Rise

Jake Fuentes

Co-Founder and CEO, Level Money

Jake Fuentes has dedicated his career to reinventing financial services for his generation. After graduating from Stanford University and building payments systems for Visa in London, Jake moved back to the Bay Area to found and launch Level Money, an award-winning financial management application. Backed by top investors, Jake is empowering his generation to take control of their financial futures and create their own version of the American Dream.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Side Hustle

The Remote Side Hustle a 43-Year-Old Musician Works on for 1 Hour a Day Earns Nearly $3,000 a Month: 'All From the Comfort of Home'

Sam Ziegler wanted to supplement his income as a professional drummer — then his tech skills and desire to help people came together.

Leadership

Former Interrogator Shares 5 Behaviors Liars Exhibit and How to Handle Them

Five deceptive behaviors to look for and how to respond to those behaviors when you encounter them.

Business News

AI Is Impacting Jobs. Here Are the Gigs Affected the Most, According to an Analysis of 5 Million Upwork Postings

The researcher said in the report that freelance jobs were analyzed first because that market will likely see AI's immediate impact.

Business News

Tesla Paid No Federal Income Taxes Over 5 Years, While Paying Top Execs $2.5 Billion, According to a New Report

Between 2018 and 2022, more than 30 companies paid its top five executives more than they paid in federal income taxes.

Money & Finance

How Stock Market Fluctuations Really Impact Your Business (and How to Thrive Amidst Volatility)

The impact of stock market fluctuations is complex and far-reaching. It doesn't just affect individual investors; its ripple effect impacts businesses everywhere. Here's how.