EXIT STRATEGY

The exit strategy is always best when applied early.

I lived my life and nobody ever taught me about a personal

exit strategy. When I started being around entrepreneurial
spaces I heard about it as a business term. I learned that it
must be part of your business plan as a contingency plan
in case the business fails or in case the business succeeds
and you want to sell it while it is doing well. Simply, in
business an exit strategy will be to limit loss or to
maximize profitability. An effective exit strategy should
be planned for every positive and negative contingency

Personal Exit Strategy

Ideally, everyone should develop an exit strategy in their

initial personal plan before seeking employment. An exit
strategy is designed to help you decide when to leave
before you even start.

Most people are stuck in dead end jobs because nobody

taught them about personal exit strategy. This should
actually be taught in school at senior level. The moment
we learn about career guidance; we are supposed to also

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be taught a personal exit strategy. For me it makes sense
that if you are going to teach someone how to get in, you
must also teach them how to get out. Many people are
misinformed because all the governmental systems
around the globe make a point to control the educational
content. This is an important point because governments
make most of their revenue from collections and
contributions that come from individual taxpayers, small
businesses, and corporations. What is even more
shocking, is that individuals pay five times more
compared to corporations. It seems as if there is no
escaping this gloomy reality, the harder you work the
more money government will take from you. Starting a
business is a no brainer if you understand that
corporations are only taxed on all profits that it cannot
deduct as business expenses. They get to spend the money
and get taxed on what’s left over but individuals are taxed
and then get to spend what remains. You wouldn’t be
reading this if you were not frustrated with employment,
so let’s discuss your exit strategy.

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Why you need an exit strategy

Without an exit strategy you will never leave your job.

Without being intentional, procrastination will be the
order of the day. People are taught how to enter into a
perpetual vortex that keeps spinning and spinning with no
end in mind. With this understanding I advise people to
make a decision on when they will exit before they start.
It is too late to plan an exit strategy when you’ve already
started work or when you have already accumulated debts
because the debts then become the reason you stay too
long in a job you don’t love. Ultimately when you are
employed on average you work 25 days in order to get a
5 days’ salary, and because it is finished in 5 days, you
have to work another 25 days to get another 5 days’ salary.
It is a vicious cycle.

So what is a personal exit strategy. Its a pre-planned

means of detaching oneself from a situation that is
likely to become difficult or unpleasant.

The only plan that most people have is a retirement plan,

which means they are planning to work for someone until

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they are old. This is a plan of defeat. These are people who
had no desire to have financial freedom. There was never
an end in mind because when vision is clear, direction is
easy (Ubong King). I encourage you, it’s now time to take
ownership of the results before you pave the way. This
means an exit strategy will be useless if you don’t have a
desire to be wealthy and live a financially free life. You
must be deliberate about your success.

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SCHOOL IS NOT COOL

The reason why a personal exit strategy is never taught to

young adults is because school is preparing them for
employment and not business. They want you to stay
there. The education system is rigged. I remember when I
use to be a teacher, a student once opened up to me with
her concerns, she was concerned that at school she felt as
if they were being taught everything accept for the things
that really matter to live their lives after education. Her
concern was that she was smart but not book recitation
smart like some of her peers. She said her peers had no
life and all they knew was to study continually and felt
they were detached from reality. As a result, many of her
peers made constant trips to the school psychologist
because of depression or stress. I truly understood her
predicament because it seemed as if her skillset was not
catered for or maybe she had an entrepreneurial spirit and
science was being forced down her throat. School is a
mystery that might never be solved. I attended a technical
high school, were I majored in electrical engineering. We
never did computers at our school but when I got to

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university, I selected Information Technology and I am a
certified Computer Specialist. As we speak I am an
entrepreneur, yet in all my expertise this is the one thing I
was never taught at school. School is rigged because those
who get good grades are exalted, but the process is on how
they got doesn’t matter. Those with good memory receive
the status of intellectuals while the rest continue to go
home to disappointed parents. I figured this out early, so
let me tell you how I made it through exams in university.
I presumed that lecturers and professors were human just
like us, and no way they would assemble a totally new
exam paper every year. I hated memorizing textbooks
because not every information in them was relevant. I
devised a plan to go to the university library and copied
three sets of past exam papers for the subjects (previous
year, the one prior to that and the one before that). That
was my main focus of study because I knew everything I
needed to thrive was there. This strategy never failed. Do
you know how many people are working in low paying
jobs because school told them that were not good enough
academically. Let’s just assume that the above thoughts
are subjective concerning school but you know what is

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not, the fact that school never taught us how to make
money. We graduated from school with what I call
assumptive math, the teachers assumed that we will figure
out how to make money by ourselves. Most people never
do and they spend half their lives and when this dons on
them they fall into what is called a midlife crisis.

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STRATEGIES OF EXITING EMPLOYMENT

Purpose of Employment.

Like a ship without direction or destination, labour

without an ideal is fruitless. Mahatma Gandhi

Dr Myles puts it this way, “When purpose is not known,

abuse is inevitable”. It is important for us to go back and
determine the purpose of why we are employed. For most
people the number one reason would be because I need to
pay my bills. Bills are how much money you owe for
something you have bought or used. The reason why you
could owe in the first place is because you were deemed
eligible to obtain credit or to buy goods on credit. Those
goods could range from furniture, car, house, food or even
clothes. Credit is the ability of a customer to obtain goods
or services before payment, based on the trust that
payment will be made in the future. The reason why most
institutions give out credit is based on a person’s credit
score. A credit score is based on a person's credit history,
including the number of open accounts, total amount of
debt, history of repayment, and other elements. Credit

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scores are used by lenders to determine the likelihood that
a borrower will make timely loan repayments.

Let us backtrack…

If the reason why you are employed is because of bills,

then abuse has been introduced because purpose has not
been known. The number one skill that any individual
must learn is the ability to earn. If any of us are to make
any strides in building a life which is above poverty, we
must find every legal way to make an income. Most know
this and that is the reason why they searched for
employment. It was a noble way to get an income. The
reason why you appeared on the radar of every creditor is
because they now knew that you had an income. I
remember when my wife and I made a decision to buy our
first house, we went to the real estate agent and she asked
for our financials, my wife was employed and I wasn’t,
she had a few accounts and I had no account. I was making
money from consultations yet it was sporadic because I
was self-employed. I was shocked when the lady came
back and complained that my credit score was zero, she
said, “I had no accounts”, “I don’t owe anyone”. I said to

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the lady “well that’s a good thing, isn’t it, it means I keep
enough money in my bank account to finance whatever I
need to do”. To my shock and amazement, she said, “no,
it’s not good in order for you to build a credit score, you
must open a few accounts, and then make sure you pay
them monthly”.

Above is all the reason you need to be alarmed. No

wealthy person can subscribe to this advice. Wealth is
built and if I keep giving away my earnings, how will I
ever amass real wealth. Employment was meant to be our
means of receiving seed and if we nurture our seed well
and plant it in the right conditions it will grow into a
fruitful tree. Basically, if we were not working we would
have no income to multiply. The mistake people make is
that the moment they get employed they create residual
bills instead of residual income. So they work their whole
life to pay residual bills. e.g. house payments, phone
payments, credit card debt. Residual income is the
opposite of this it refers to the amount of money you
continue to generate after the initial work is done. The
main idea behind residual income is leveraging other

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people’s time and resources to achieve a consistent
revenue. It could be network marketing, renting out a
room or an apartment, setting up a website, selling
products online or you could even put advertisement on
your car. Make it a habit of having money coming to you
every month.

Exit Strategy Number 1

Start a side business that you will work on after your

employment hours. This will be very tiring and requires
the highest level of discipline. Most people are drained
emotionally, mentally and physically from their 9-5 job to
attempt anything after hours towards their own business.
Others do attempt starting but are too drained to put
optimal effort as a result the business never takes off.
Don’t spend your energy building another person’s wealth
but become too exhausted to build your own. Be faithful
at your workplace but don’t neglect what truly matters. Of
a truth every employee is disposable. Listen to testimony
of people who were once pillars for companies only to be
retrenched because of restructuring. During the Covid-19
Pandemic companies reduced a lot of peoples wages and

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also had to let go of others. It doesn’t matter your skillset,
experience or loyalty, you are disposable. Start working
on your own wealth after hours until the profits equal your
salary or at best until profits equal living expenses. When
you get to stage exiting becomes the next logical step. It
will feel like you are working two full time jobs. It means
the business can now support you. When this happens
making the switch to Entrepreneurship becomes stress-
free.

Exit Strategy Number 2

Three Months savings plan before you quit

Most people call this a three months’ financial fund. What

this means is that you fund your exit buy saving money.
Most people save three months’ security cash flow to
sustain them while they figure out what to do next but you
can also decide to save six months which is rather
difficult. The logic for most people who do is that there is
no way it will take them more than three months to hit the
ground running again and getting another form of income.
Personally I wouldn’t subscribe to this plan unless if you

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are searching for another job cause if you’re entrepreneur
doing a start-up, your start-cost will eat into your savings
which might disrupt your living. You might go from
living to surviving. Most people that subscribe to this plan
say that at least they will some peace of mind and some
air to breath for a few months, but for me this is a fallacy,
there is no peace of mind knowing that your money will
run out in 3 months.

Exit Strategy Number 3

Timeline Plan Strategy

Write a resignation letter, make sure that you put the date
of your exit on it. Print this letter and place it somewhere
visible to you daily. This will help because with the date
already predetermined you will work backwards. You will
continually be motivated about your impending exit
because the letter is a constant reminder that you cannot
relax. When the resignation date is slowly imminent you
can start training people on what you do so that the
company is not left with a void. This strategy will help

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you put your house in order and ensure all your ducks are
in a row.

Exit Strategy Number 4

I am going to quit and figure things out.

This is never a good plan unless you have faith for

uncommon favour. My suggestion is at least if you’re
going to be this bold have some kind of direction because
according to Seneca the Younger, “No wind blows in
favour of a ship without direction”.

What I did…

Let me reveal to you my exit strategy. When I wasn’t

employed, because I knew I had a family and children,
and I knew needed to have an income. So I got a job as an
educator/ computer technician at a great school. I entered
there on a junior contract got upskilled and they made me
permanent. Remember as part of my personal exit
strategy, I already knew that I wanted to open my own
Computer Training School, that’s why I chose this job.
Fast forward, the moment they made me permanent I
knew I was done for because this was every educators’

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dream. I looked at some senior educators who had been
there 10 years, some 15 years and realised how
comfortable they were and how broke they were. I told
myself I don’t want this kind of life, where I get paid R22
000 and shut down. Another thing was my time, in the
education space, your time is heavily guarded from
morning to afternoon, besides it is irresponsible for you to
leave the premises when students are present to receive
education. The moment all this donned on me I searched
for my next employment in a IT Company where I was
going to be paid the same amount but on a one-year
contract and flexible office times. I could move freely and
would not be tied down at one location. I had enough time
to start working on my business which would be my next
move. So before this I was two feet in as computer
teacher, then it was one foot in and one foot out at a IT
Company as an Operations Manager, eventually I
ventured out into business to work on my fortune. It took
me six years to execute my exit strategy but it felt so short
cause every step of the journey was calculated and
implemented with precision. There were days where I
woke up in the morning frustrated just like everybody but

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my exit strategy energized me. I knew what to do with my
salary, I could invest it wisely while preparing for my next
move.

Whatever the case, your exit strategy should eventually

guide you from working for someone else’s fortune to
your own, no matter how long it takes.

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PREPARING AN EXIT STRATEGY

1. Obtain a personal assessment.

The most important subject none of us have ever been

taught is how to learn about ourselves.

When you’re planning your exit strategy, you’ll want

to know how much you are worth. As simple as this
sounds most people settle for less because they don’t
know their self-worth. Do your due diligence for a
personal appraisal so that you can figure out potential
in yourself.

Reflect on your accomplishments from the previous

years. Make a master list of everything you've
accomplished via brainstorming. Include whatever you
can for the time being. In your assessment draft down
the accomplishments you're most satisfied of,
especially those that contributed the most value to your
life. You shouldn't only be blowing your own trumpet
when evaluating yourself. It's critical to demonstrate
your understanding of your pitfalls.

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2. Think about the future route.

Ask yourself what you want from your exit strategy.

Do you just want to walk away immediately? Do you
want to gradually walk away? When people are
planning to visit a city or place for the first time they
check all the best possible routes to that place. When
you mentally know where you are going, how you will
get there and the duration of the trip it puts you at ease.
If the trip is to take 5 hours and you make there in 10
hours, then you definitely know something went
wrong. It is the same when it comes to your life, if you
had planned to only work for 5 years as part of your
exit strategy and for some reason 10 years down the
line you are still stuck in the same company then it is
a cause for concern.

3. Take into account the ideal and worst case

scenarios.

When you’re preparing your exit strategy, you should

consider all of the possible outcomes, and make

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contingency plans accordingly. Consider how much
money you need after your exit.

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DON’T DELAY

Delay, procrastination or postponement, whatever name

you want to call it is the most undermined phenomenon
known to mankind. Often times I wonder why it is not
taught at schools as a subject of its own.

When I saw this definition on Wikipedia it really got me

wondering, is it maybe connected to some mental
disorder?

Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and

voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite
knowing that there will be negative consequences for
doing so. – Wikipedia

It is deciding not to do something important knowing very

well that not doing it will affect you adversely. I think
most people procrastinate because of a lack of value that
is associated with that thing or task. At times we delay
starting things as if time is an acquaintance. Just yesterday
I remember my head full of hair, and I was rocking that
afro but I woke up one day and my hair was gone. Time

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waits for no man, so while we delay doing the things that
matter most our energy is depleting.

Newton's third law states that if an object A exerts a force

on object B, then object B must exert a force of equal
magnitude and opposite direction back on object A. This
law represents a certain symmetry in nature: forces
always occur in pairs, and one body cannot exert a force
on another without experiencing a force itself.

When we are working on something two things happen,

you work on that thing and that thing works on you. Most
of the time we put so much effort on things or in life we
are caught in so many situations, by the time we come out
of these situations we are often ignorant of what these
situations did to us.

Let’s say you have worked in a company for many years,

you gave your all to that company or you are giving your
all, but you are not conscious of what the company is
doing to you. You are paying a great price by waking up
every day being miserable. Look what it’s done to your
health, your relationships, your confidence and your

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overall growth. You owe it to yourself to at least attempt
a change of any kind.

Goals

If you don’t have any goals, there is no point in exiting. If

you are quitting your job in order to find another one, it’s
like changing prisons. State prisons have 3 levels of
security, there is maximum security, medium security and
minimum depending on the level of crime committed.
Each of these levels vary in security strictness, for
example minimum security prisons even allow people to
do some work in the community. So when you are exiting
a job to find another one make sure you are not leaving a
minimum security prison to go to a maximum security
prison no matter the financial benefits. The main goal in
life is always financial freedom. I do believe the road to
genuine wealth creation is paved through
entrepreneurship. I often wonder why people always say
they need job security. How is a job secure if there are
chances of being fired or retrenched? The above analogy
of prison really should be an eye opener because we have
to consider the dynamics of prison.

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Time

In prison your time does not belong to you it is regulated.

You are told when to wake up or when to sleep, you are
told when to eat. If there is a desire to do anything extra
with your time, a request must be submitted and
permission must be granted.

Security

It is called job security because at your place just like

prison you are watched like a hawk. You are placed under
strict governance.

Dependency

Being an employee, you are always dependant on the

employer on the work he gives you to do. Employees have
to do every work the employee tells them to do. A few
definitions of dependency:

The state of relying on or being controlled by someone or

something else

a situation in which you need something or someone and

are unable to continue normally without them

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You are probably dependant on your job if you see the
following:

 You constantly talk about your job;

 You spend the majority of your life at work.
 You check work emails, voice mails, and texts after
work hours.
 You wouldn't have any money without your job.
 you have to be at work even if you're not productive;
 Your market value is determined by your job.
 Your job is the biggest source of stress in your life;
 You can't wait till retirement to begin living;
 You haven’t Acquired Any Useful Knowledge
Since School.

With so much money in the world, the question then is

why would someone limit themselves to a salary. Salary
will always be fixed to the amount decided not by you but
the employer.

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THE 3 GROUPINGS OF SOCIETY

Society is grouped into the lower class, middle class and

higher class. Social class describes societal distinctions
based on social and economic standing. People who
belong to the same socioeconomic class frequently have
comparable levels of wealth, educational attainment,
employment status, and income. What is shocking about
these categories is that generally they are based on how
much income you make, not how much you keep. This is
where the dilemma is located. Robert Kiyosaki puts it like
this, “It’s not now much money you make, but how much
money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how
many generations you keep it for”. If a person makes
money today but then squanders it tomorrow

You could make a million dollars today, but if you

squander it tomorrow, that money doesn’t count. This
then takes us to the conversation about net worth. Your
net worth is the difference between the value of your
assets and liabilities. In plain English, net worth is the sum
of your assets less your liabilities. If your assets are
greater than your liabilities, your net worth is positive. In

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contrast, you have a negative net worth if your liabilities
exceed your assets. Below is a table that will best help
understand social classes.

Social Class Definition

Lower Class Those who perform manual labor
frequently have low levels of educational
achievement. Heavy labor and
manufacturing work are examples of
conventional, working class jobs.
Middle Class People who perform non-manual labor
frequently have greater levels of
educational achievement. Traditional
middle-class occupations range from
lawyers and surgeons to secretaries.
Upper Class The affluent class that dominates society
in terms of wealth and influence.

We learned the specific behaviors, mind-sets, actions, and

lifestyle of those around us in our same social class. These
experiences created most of our perspective of how the
world works

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Mind-set

Most of us because we grew up in either the lower class

or middle class sphere are mind set is based on small
thinking, scarcity, and fear. We learn all sorts of ways on
how to be ill-disciplined and even defend our conduct, but
those in the upper class who are successful, wealthy, and
influential are extremely disciplined in their habits. Josh
Waitzkin once said, “Mental resilience is arguably the
most critical trait of a world-class performer, and it should
be nurtured continuously”. It is common knowledge to all
that the wealthy think a certain way that makes them
different. You'll start acting like a wealthy person if you
adopt an upper-class mind set. Most lower and middle
class people have what is called a scarcity mind-set. They
always find ways of focusing on never having enough.
With this attitude, one hoards everything in an attempt to
"save" for the future because they believe that whatever is
available will never be enough. People like this believe
that all the money in the world is diminishing. They see
money as something finite and that if one person has
money then that leaves less for everyone else. The upper

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class have trained they minds to recognize the
possibilities. They see opportunities in everything. During
the Covid Pandemic while the lower and middle class
were scrambling to save everything they bought on credit,
the wealthy saw opportunities on how to make more
money. It’s a known fact that the lower and middle class
believe in working hard but the upper class believe in
working smart. Honestly I believe that lack and
abundance are always within us or around us, but it’s what
we focus on that will manifest. The lower and middle
believe the only way to make money is to have a job.

Time

How you spend your time and what you do what it will
have great impact on how your life. Most lower class and
middle class people love watching television, attending
sports events where they watch others making their
money, they love hanging out at bars socializing with
friends. While there is nothing wrong with these because
the upper class also do them but the difference is they
might attend a sports event or go for drinks at a bar to
close a deal with a client. The Upper class specialize in

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using other peoples time to save theirs, not only that but
to increase theirs. Wealthy people don’t have 24 hours
they have more. They pay for other peoples’ time. An
interesting movie to touch would be “In time”, the movie
is about a date in a future where people stop ageing after
25 and need to buy time to live, the rich become immortal
while others cease to exist. In this movie those in the
ghetto barely have 24 hours on the clock while the
wealthy seem to have time immortal on the other side of
the tracks. The lower class and the middle class, cut their
own lawn with their time, wash their own car, clean their
own house, cook their own food, but the upper class buy
someone else’s time and have them do it. Then they use
this extra time they bought to make more money.

Mentorship

The upper class have mentors because they have realised

that their knowledge is infinite, but also they have a need
to be accountable to someone. They make it a priority to
get mentorship through books, success coaches, seminars,
webinars and anything else that will make them better.
Sadly, the lower and middle class are too proud and

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arrogant they often trivialize the need for information that
could transform their lives. A mentor will always help you
grow your skills, help you make better decisions, and
assist you gain new perspectives on your life.

A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability

within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out
of you.” — Bob Proctor

The upper class are aware that mentors can help them
steer clear of common blunders by providing guidance
and advise. The lower and middle want to learn by
experience.

Focus on self-improvement.

The lower and middle class spend money for instant

gratification which is not bad but it must lead to self-
improvement. Buying a new car is good, a new house or
going shopping these are good but if you don’t spend
money to improve yourself all of the above become a
curse to you. What a person becomes is more important
than what they have. The upper class spend money to
better themselves, they have money yet they are still

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buying online courses, buying books and attending wealth
seminars. Some of most successful people in the world are
so simple you could pass them at a mall and not think
much of them because their focal point is not what they
wear on the outside, it’s their mind. One of the wealthiest
men I know went on a holiday, and when he returned
home the family was happy to have him back, his wife
asked him what present did he buy for her on holiday,
guess what! he had bought a suitcase and it were all sorts
of books, and he said to her in these books lies everything
we require for life. The upper class don’t mind spending
a lot of money if it’s an investment. What greater
investment is there in life than to invest in yourself.

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SUMMARY

The goal is to get you into financial freedom. If I use the

analogies given above. State prisons have 3 levels of
security. It’s imperative that you start paving your exit
strategy if where you work currently is a maximum
security prison make an exit to a medium security prison
and from there to a minimum security, then ultimately
come out of prison. There is a life outside employment,
start planning for that life with your exit strategy. Read
books that will inspire success, I have a book called, THE
WORKHORSE, make it a point to get it, it gives a
biblical perspective on success and money. If this short
ebook can inspire you like this imagine what buying THE
WORKHORSE MONEY MINDSET COURSE will do
to you, with videos and success models to apply to
become wealthy.

The second analogy which is the three grouping of

society. It is time to join the upper-class, adjust your mind
and locate that wealthy place. The upper class believe in
creativity and they understand the spirit of the age. We are
in the fourth industrial age which is dominated by content.

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The focus is on Information Communication Technology,
which means the technology of our day is information.

In the modern globalizing world, information sows the

seeds of prosperity, and those who are without access
to information are at a distinct disadvantage when it
comes to building a better future for themselves and
for their children. - SHASHI THAROOR

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35