A 30-year-old entrepreneur explains what it's like to give up the security of a 6-figure job to branch out on his own

In 2012, Brandon Doyle was living in Provo, Utah, earning over $100,000 a year as a financial consultant for a major bank.

"I was gone from the house, with the commute, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m Monday through Friday," says the now 30-year-old. "Sometimes 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. It was a pretty high stress job, because it was a combination of financial consulting in addition to sales."

He didn't hate his job, he recalls. He just wanted to do something else more, no matter what it paid.

"I always enjoyed being my own boss," he says. "I always had the entrepreneur gene inside me. In 5th grade I joined the band to impress a girl who moved away, so instead of quitting band, I turned my clarinet case into a candy store and started selling candy."

Although he had started taking on some side projects in SEO and digital marketing, he knew he wouldn't be able to fully devote himself to his passion project while holding onto his day job.

At the time, Doyle and his wife had a young child and another on the way, making it an inopportune time to leave the security - and health insurance - of a steady gig.

Doyle leapt anyway.

"I officially made the decision the day before I quit," he remembers. "I was really happy, that's for sure, but I was really stressed."

While he had some savings, they were eaten up by the hospital and delivery costs of his second child only months after he left his job. For those first few weeks on his own, he was earning enough to cover his family's basic costs, until all three of his steady clients fell through. He turned to credit cards to bridge his income gap.

"Then I had zero clients and no job and lots of responsibilities and an impending child, but that motivated me to hustle as hard as I could because I literally had no other choice than to do my best," he says.

By May, only four months after branching out on his own, Doyle and his friend-turned-business-partner were earning enough through their digital marketing agency, Wallaroo Media, to cover both of their families' expenses. By September, the business was steady enough to hire four part-time employees.

Doyle was able to pay off his credit card debt and supports his family (he now has three children) through the company he started. "I don't yet make as much as I did when I was at [my previous job], but it's not because I couldn't if I wanted to," he says. "The more money our company is making, I try to pass as much of it along as I can in the form of raises to everyone else on the team. Since my needs are taken care of, I don't really care about getting rich or anything - I just want everyone else on the team to have a great life, I guess."

"Pressure-wise, I feel like I have the perfect life and the perfect job right now," he continues."Of course, my goal is to get to the point where I'm making more than I was, and everyone on my team is making more than I was as well."