I’ve been with the same company for 8 years. The pay is good and it’s stable, but the culture has tanked under new ownership and I’m completely burnt out. To get moving again, I earned my CompTIA A+, launched an IT LLC, and reached out to a former CEO I really respect.
This guy is a proven winner—he sold his last company for a massive exit and his new startup is already scaling fast. He wants to Zoom this Friday to "catch up" and see where I might fit in.
Here is the reality: I have a family to support, and the "what ifs" are eating me alive. What if I take a pay cut to join a startup and it doesn't work out? What if I’m not able to keep up with a high-performance team after being in a stagnant environment for so long?
I’m currently caught between the misery of a job that’s killing my spirit and the terror of risking my family’s stability for an "unknown" role. I’m so stressed I feel like I’m at a breaking point.
Is it normal to feel this much dread alongside the excitement? How do you weigh the "safety" of a high-paying, stagnant job against a high-upside opportunity when you have people counting on you?
Thanks