QUIT MY $250,000 JOB after learning THIS about money

I quit because of 10 words that changed my life. I was making over $250,000 as a corporate lawyer, was one of the highest paid lawyers in the world for my age, had spent a decade working hard to get to where I was, and with one phone call and hearing those 10 words on the phone, I knew I was going to quit and walk away from it. Those 10 words taught me everything I need to know about money. And this video is the hardest one I've ever made. I've been planning it for a year, but I've just been too scared to post it. It's really personal, but if you're watching it, it means it's out there and I haven't deleted it. So right after my first year of law school, I got an offer to work in what's called Big Law, and it means you work for one of the top law firms in the world, and you're making more than $180,000 your first year. Fast forward a few years, I've graduated from Georgetown Law, I'm working in Big Law as a corporate lawyer in mergers and acquisitions doing these billion dollar deals, and it is very glamorous. You're working with the best of the best from Harvard Law, Stanford Law, kind of like a real life Suits. We take our interns on helicopter rides of the city and go out to fancy dinners where the bill is thousands of dollars. And it's easy when the world is telling you you've made it. You're in the most prestigious job. To lose sight of your why. Add to that, you've just spent $200,000 on law school and you need this job to pay it off. You get very caught up in it. I wanted to become a lawyer to help people, but at these big law firms, all you're doing is helping large faceless corporations. Your clients are the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, the Amazons and Apples of the world, and it's easy to get complacent. In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to do something that had more of an impact on actual people, something entrepreneurial, but I was too scared to leave, and I was worried that I'd fail miserably on my own. And it was just one phone call, 10 words, that changed everything. That phone call was with my boss, a senior partner at the law firm. So earlier that week, I found out that my 89-year-old grandpa was hospitalized and his condition was deteriorating. So I told my boss and asked for some time to go see my grandpa. My boss agreed, so I made the five-hour journey to my grandparents' house. That first night, my boss kept giving me time-sensitive assignments, so I couldn't even make it to the hospital during visiting hours. 3 a.m., The second night, I decided to work up the courage to ask my boss for an extension so that I could actually have a few hours to see my grandpa in the hospital. In my years of working for this boss, I had never asked for an extension. It didn't matter if I had to work 20 hours on my birthday while on vacation and miss my own birthday dinner. True story. It didn't matter if I had to pull two all-nighters in a row and felt like my body was shutting down. I just never asked. And the culture of these law firms is all about how hard you can work. Overworking is glamorized and it's like this badge of honor when you say that you had to pull an all-nighter at work. We all had extra clothes in the office for those all-nighters. And if you don't fill enough hours, it's basically the unspoken rule that you'll get fired. I just accepted that hundred-hour weeks for part of what I agreed to as a corporate lawyer. I wanted to prove myself to him and show him that I deserved a spot at this law firm. And at these law firms, you just you don't say no. But this time was different. I needed to spend time with my grandpa. So I worked up the courage to press send on an email where I explained the situation and asked my boss for an extension. I remember just pacing back and forth in that tiny room in my grandparents house so nervous because I'd never asked for an extension. And then the call comes and he calls me and he says, no I can't give you an extension. And I kept trying to reason with him and tell him why I needed to go spend time with my grandpa. But he kept responding to my pleas with 10 words. What do you think we pay you so much for? What do you think we pay you so much for? And he kept repeating those words on the call over and over again. So defeated, I hung up. I kept working as instructed and I couldn't get to the hospital in time for visiting hours again. My grandpa passed away shortly after and I missed out on some of the last precious hours I could have spent with him. And it's really hard living with that regret I have. This story isn't to make you sad. It has a happy ending, happy message, I promise. Because those 10 words taught me everything I need to know about money. Those 10 words made me realize that to the law firm, they would always feel like they owned every hour of my time because of what they paid me. And with any job, you're only as good as the number of hours you can give to the company. It's active income. You're trading your time for money. And if you stop working, the money stops coming in. Money won't buy you time. Money won't buy you health. It won't buy you happiness. Money won't save you from burnout. Money might buy you external validation. And that's where the societal obsession with trying to keep up with the Joneses and being concerned about the car we drive or the house we live in comes in. But that external validation will never actually fulfill you the way you think it might. Going from making minimum wage as a bartender to help with law school expenses to making multiple six figures as a corporate lawyer at this top law firm, I thought I had made it. And I was obviously very lucky to get that job. I never felt like I deserved it. I didn't come from much, so always kind of felt like I was just this imposter who snuck in. So it was bizarre and like I was being ungrateful, wanting to walk away from this job that so many people would love to have. But what I realized is the money, the prestige simply wasn't worth it. I think we all have a why. And sometimes it's easy to lose sight of that. Sometimes we let fear stop us from actually pursuing our why. We worry too much about what others think. Or we become complacent. Or we become golden handcuffed. We become risk averse. Or we've inflated our lifestyle so much that it's hard to go back. And we're working 60, 80, 100 hour weeks. But why? My why has never been about making money. But without those 10 words ringing in my ears, I don't think I would have ever had the courage to leave that comfortable job to go actually pursue my why. My why is I want to have an impact. I genuinely want to help people. My why is I want to be able to spend time with people I care about. My why is building my legal company, Plugin Law, so that people who can't afford to hire expensive lawyers can still legally protect their business. My why is that I want to use this YouTube channel to help people to take control of their finances. To hopefully show people that the power of money is not the things you can buy with it. It's the optionality and the freedom that it affords you. Putting your money into investments so that money is compounding and working for you, that's powerful. Putting time and money into building passive income so that you can literally earn money in your sleep, that's powerful. Because it's not so much about how much you make, it's about how much of that you save and what you're doing with that money you save to secure your financial future. That's where money actually matters. That's the power of personal finance. You delay gratification now so that you can have optionality to walk away from a bad job or to take a break and travel or spend time with your family and to not let anyone ever tell you, what do you think we pay you so much for? As if they have power over your time like that. Because time is what you can't get back no matter how much money you have. And it's easy to get caught up in this rat race and forget that. That phone call was the day I decided I was quitting to actually go after my why. I had a lot of fears when I decided to quit to start my own legal company. I was genuinely scared I might fail. I had other lawyers tell me I would fail. I was scared I would be laughed at when I started my YouTube channel. Well, I did get laughed at. Other lawyers told me it was unprofessional. I was scared that I would run out of my emergency fund and would need to go back to a law firm. And everyone that told me I'd fail would be able to say, I told you so. I feared losing the prestige and not being taken seriously. I was especially scared of disappointing my parents who had just sacrificed so much for me. My dad joined the military at 18, never went to college, and spent his entire life working so hard every day and never buying a single nice thing for himself. And I knew how much he beamed with pride when he told his friends that his daughter was this lawyer at this top law firm. And I was sad to take that away from him. But there is one thing I fear more than any of those things. I fear regret more. I fear regret more than I fear failure. To be honest, I don't hold a grudge against that boss. He was just doing his job and I'm sure he was under a lot of stress. But I'm sad I didn't stand up for myself. I'm sad I got so caught up in this work culture that I forgot that time is the most valuable asset we have. I wish the Erica in 2019 when this happened was as brave as I feel now. I wish I could have just said, no, I don't care, the deadline can wait. I'm going to the hospital to see my grandpa. But I didn't. And that's the problem with regret. Regret implies that you had the opportunity to do something differently and you didn't. And for me, it's too late to go back and change that. I will never get those hours back no matter what I do or what I accomplish for the rest of my life. That is why regret is terrifying. I knew I would regret not trying to take a chance on myself. I knew I would regret staying as a corporate lawyer and only helping large faceless corporations get richer and not helping the actual people who need my help. And so I quit. And whatever your why is, don't lose sight of it. Whatever fears you have, remember that you should be more fearful of regret. I know that I've always cared so much about what people thought of me and I've always followed this path of what I thought society wanted me to do. People want you to follow this set path and there's a lot of pressure to do that. I had so many people tell me I would fail on my own. I had a partner at the law firm tell me that quitting would be the biggest mistake of my life. And if I wanted to, we could just pretend that I never submitted my two weeks notice. I had another lawyer at the law firm start spreading a rumor about how I got fired. Because he couldn't fathom that someone would walk away from this prestigious job on their own accord. And what I realized is that when you are trying to stray from that path, people will be very vocal about what they think you can't do. They will be quick to tell you that you're going to fail. They'll project their own insecurities onto you. But very few people, if any, will be vocal about what they think you can do. Very few people are going to be willing to stand up for you. And that's why you have to be your own advocate. I know that you're watching this and there's probably something that you've been wanting to do but you've let fear stop you. Whatever it is, my advice is just to go for it. No one is ever going to believe in you more than you believe in yourself. This year was my year of not letting fear stop me. I founded PluginLaw earlier this year and it's helped thousands of people who might not be able to afford an expensive lawyer to legally protect their business. This YouTube channel has grown to 70,000 subscribers and 4 million views thanks to you. I started from $0 in January and wanted to show that making passive income in just a year is possible. So in just this year, I've made over $100,000 from YouTube and built a course to show others the way. And I was in Business Insider, CNBC, US News and Inc Magazine. And with this video, I've conquered my fear of posting this video and sharing my story. I'm sad that my grandpa isn't here to see this but I hope he would be proud. So stop doubting yourself. Don't lose sight of your why. And you can absolutely do it and this next year is all yours for the taking.