Is it a good idea to leave job to pursue your interest?

I was in job for 5 years, 2.5 years in IBM and another 2.5 years in Accenture, untill one day I just quit.

It was my 27th Birthday and I did not tell anyone that I quit. Untill late night when people gathered for cake cutting.

What happened next?

I had some savings and a beautiful rented flat on top floor. For the next 3 months I drank beer and watch the sun go down from my flat. I went for long walks and watched my savings go down. It was a very calm feeling as if some long drowning noise was just shut off in your head. The best part was long walks/excursions/ nearby treks without an urgency to return. You feel close to your thoughts and they grow louder and louder in your head every day. This is what i guess is called 'listening to your instincts'.

I knew that I was good in coding and that was my only asset. I also came to know over long hours of boring jobs that a big branded MNC is not a place where you show your coding skills!

The other assets that I had was laptop and and android phone. So I began writing 'Hello World' apps on my phone. I got more and more interested in Android coding.

I also found it very intriguing that how we were loosing human elements while living in big societies and working in big company. No smiles no laughs just work and salary and a long awaited weekend. This is when I thought to build a platform to bring everyone on common ground a physical plane. Every other human living next to us is stuck almost in a similar situation as ours but we are not aware.

The next few months were witness to a long hours of coding sessions sometimes as long as 18 hours. Wherein I created an app which which allowed people know about someone just by being physically near to him.

I wrote the android app, rented a free linux server over amazon , created a backend code in Java , set up a db in MySql and launched it on Apache Tomcat. All complete freeware and I did not spend a single penny in development. All this happened in a span of 6 - 8 months and I launched the app in google play store The app - " PeepApp" as it is called is now closing to a 1000 downloads at the time of writing.

PeepApp - Fun, Friends, Places - Android Apps on Google Play

Everyday I see users chatting and engaging in something which I have created. Its a different feeling altogether.

I enjoyed my 1.5 yrs of break did some freelancing and lot of travelling. Developed an app and made myself a technical 'badass' in the process.

I joined back in a job based on my terms and conditions as the head of mobile division of a small sized company , I got more than 120% hike on the salary on which I had left 2 years ago. I have currently put down my papers to serve as the Technology Head for another mobile app company at an 'exorbitant' salary. All this happened in a matter of years. I use this money to market my app now, and just finished with the website:

www.peepapp.in

The moral : Its totally worth it to leave an uninteresting job to pursue what you want to do. You come back with loads of confidence and stories, and you grow yourself enormously in the process!

All the Best!