Personal Finance

These People Became Massively Successful After Quitting Their Jobs

Happy rich Indian businessman wasting throwing money dollars cash around earnings, big profit, win lottery, share, celebrate, charity donation outdoors. Arabian Hindu freelancer guy in downtown city
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At some point, you probably thought about quitting your job. Maybe it was the bad pay, a terrible boss, hostile work environment, or virtually no life-work balance.

Or you simply thought your skills and expertise could be put to better use elsewhere.

But it’s not easy to quit your job and follow your dreams. For many, a paycheck is their only ticket to survival. But wherever you stand, it’s possible to cut loose from what’s holding you back and take the plunge into a new world. Some people did this and landed on millionaire territory.

So let’s take a look at five people who became massively successful after quitting their jobs.

24/7 Wall St. Insights

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  • One person left a toxic work environment to form a multimillion dollar competitor.
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Kat Norton

Woman working on spreadsheets on laptop
Kaspars Grinvalds / Shutterstock.com
If you excel at a particular skill in your field, why not turn it into a full-time gig?

At the onset of the pandemic, Kat Norton was struggling financially and moved back in with her parents. She held a consulting job and part of her job was teaching Microsoft Excel – something she thoroughly enjoyed.

So she decided to have some fun with this skill and ended up turning it into millions.

TikTok millions

Anatoliy Sizov / iStock Unreleased via Getty Images
Norton achieved influencer fame on the popular app.

Norton decided to make free TikTok videos teaching Excel. One of her most popular videos featured an overview of Excel’s new data-searching feature to the tune of DMX. It chewed up more than 100,000 views. Eventually, a CEO of an IT company asked her to make Excel videos for his clients.

After her videos hit more than 300,000 views, “Ms. Excel” quit her job and focused on monetizing her new millionaire project.

Isaac Medeiros

Katana Blades
The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons
Katanas are fine Japanese swords

During the pandemic, then 24-year-old Isaac Medeiros decided to sell miniature katanas from his Los Angeles apartment. The sleek Japanese swords hooked millions.

By 2021, Mini Katana had slashed through more than $2.5 million in sales.

A sharp edge

Knife with an unusual blade. The blade of the knife at an angle on the diagonal.
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You need to stay sharp to become a millionaire.

Like many of today’s self-made millionaires, Medeiros took advantage of social media channels like YouTube and TikTok to reach the masses. But it wasn’t always clean. He clashed with Facebook at one point after the social media giant banned him and accused him of advertising a weapon. But that led him to “organic creation,” where he really shined.

Whitney Wolfe Herd

Love, happy and couple piggy back on road path in Arizona desert in USA for romantic getaway. Interracial people dating smile while enjoying summer romance on travel holiday adventure together.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock.com
You can make millions helping people find love.

Whitney Wolfe Herd co-founded the popular dating app Tinder in her early 20s and quickly rose to the rank of vice president of marketing.

However, she left the company after an alleged sexual harassment lawsuit that was later settled. But instead of fading away, she decided to create her own dating app. And in this one, women call the shots.

Swipe right for millions

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The millionaire life is a sweet life.

Herd went on to launch the woman-focused dating app Bumble. And in 2021, she became the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire.

Today, Bumble has more than 58 million active users and 2.73 million paying users. Bumble earned $844 million in revenue in 2023.

Tori Gerbig

Artistic, expressive man and woman in stylish clothes dancing disco, retro dance against gradient pink yellow background. Concept of retro style, dance, fashion, art, hobby, music, 70s, hobby
Master1305 / Shutterstock.com
This entrepreneur made millions with her taste in fashion.

This millionaire quit her day job after her side gig took off.

In 2014, Tori Gerbig was selling insurance and earning about $35,000 per year. But along with her husband Chris, she also ran a side-gig, selling clothes online through eBay and Facebook marketplace.

Turning pink to green

young guy dancer in black clothes break dancing in neon lighting, man performs hip hop movement in red blue club lighting
Bohdan Malitskiy / Shutterstock.com
You don’t need much money to look like a millionaire.

The Gerbigs’ customer base quickly grew to more than 100,000 from just a few hundred. It became so demanding that Mrs. Gerbig quit her insurance job to focus on what would become Pink Lily, a popular online fashion retail company. By 2021, the company was weaving more than $140 million in sales.

Leslie Anne Morris

residential Wyoming | cabin on the meadow
mujun / iStock via Getty Images
The cabin business can be a lucrative one.

As a commercial banker, Leslie Anne Morris was making around $250,000 a year. But she knew she could do more by pursuing an adjacent passion: real estate investing.

So she decided to start buying up cabins starting with some in the Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee, as she continued her job in banking. She also earned a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Morris even tapped a retirement account to buy and flip more cabins as she was getting mentored by her own clients who held real estate portfolios.

Snuggling up with millions

Money
ElenaR/Shutterstock.com
Some people become millionaires by investing in their dreams.

Eventually, her cabin business surpassed her banking salary and she began focusing on her own business. She quit in 2022. And she founded Invest in the Smoky Mountains and Josh’s Cabins.

By the summer of 2023, her own real estate portfolio was worth about $8 million.

Why we covered this

Pekic / Getty Images
Quitting a job that’s not for you can be fresh, new beginning.

Some people may feel stuck at a job that’s not fulfilling or is holding them back from doing what they truly love. But while it can be an immensely intimidating task to quit your job and pursue your own business, many people did and found more than just self-fulfillment. They filled their wallets with millions.

So we thought we’d round up a few inspirational stories about these daring millionaires.

 

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