• Nicole Kidman said she considered giving up on acting after the birth of her third child in 2008.
• Her mom, however, encouraged her not to give it up completely.
• Kidman said she's inspired by other working moms who "keep going."

Nicole Kidman once almost gave up on acting.

In an extended interview with CBS posted on Sunday, the "Babygirl" actor reflected on moments when she thought of leaving her career.

"When I gave birth to Sunday, I was like, well, I think I'm pretty much done now," said Kidman, 57, who gave birth in 2008. At that time, she had moved to Nashville and was living on a farm.

But it was her mom who encouraged her to reconsider. "My mom actually said, 'I wouldn't give up completely. Keep a finger sort of, in it,' and I said, 'No, no, no, I'm done now.'"

Her mom had responded, "Just listen to me. I think, keep moving forward. Not saying that you have to do it to the level you've been doing it, but I wouldn't give it up completely," she recalled.

"And that came from a woman who obviously was from a generation that didn't have the opportunities that I had, but she had helped create for her daughters," she said. Her mom probably wished she had that advice when she was little, so she could give it to her and her sister, she added.

Kidman's sister became a lawyer in her 40s and has six kids, she said.

"It's fascinating to me that we both, and there are only two of us, just keep going. We're inspired when we look around at other women in the world who, at a particular age, do keep going," she said. "They are still raising their children, doing the things they love, but also have careers and not apologize for it."

Kidman shares two kids, whom she adopted with her ex-husband, Tom Cruise, and two daughters, who are 16 and 13, with Keith Urban.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kidman said she thought her career was over when she turned 40.

"Things are changing now, don't you think? Doors are opening. People are living longer and there's more to be said, and more stories to be told," she said.

Returning to work after having kids

Allison Venditti, the founder of Moms at Work, an organization for working moms, previously told Business Insider that work can give moms meaning and provide structure to their day.

"Work is a familiar space — and for many women who have worked hard and studied hard, they don't want to not work," she said.

The most important thing, however, is for women to have the choice, she said. "Choice in how they approach work and family, choice to go back to work early, choice to take more time off," she added. In the US, paid parental leave is not guaranteed.

Katie Alexander previously wrote for BI that she felt judged when she chose to return to work eight months after giving birth. But doing so allowed her to be a better parent, she said.

"My daughter comes first, full stop. Shaming working mothers who have no other option — for whatever reason — helps no one," she said.

A representative for Kidman did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• Adam Knorr left a lucrative finance career to pursue writing in Hawaii in 2022.
• Despite a growing salary and the opportunity for a big promotion, Knorr felt unfulfilled in finance.
• Knorr now freelances as a copywriter and ghostwriter and has no regrets about leaving finance.

I walked away from life-changing money in finance to chase my dream of becoming a writer. I had no experience, clients, or idea where to start.

I moved from Nashville to Hawaii to figure it out.

I graduated with a journalism degree, but my brother worked in finance in Nashville. He told me he could get me an interview at his company. I interviewed, got the job, ditched my dreams, and chased a paycheck for six years.

I never liked working in finance, but the money made it hard to leave

I started working in 2016 and made about $50,000 as a 22-year-old. I felt rich, and the number kept climbing.

By 2021, I was making nearly $150,000 a year. Halfway through my last year, I was on pace to make $205,000. I was also interviewing for new roles in the $250,000 range.

Every day I worked in finance, I knew it wasn't right for me. I wanted to quit and be a writer, but the money was too good.

Finally, in May 2022, when I was up for a promotion, the dam burst. I remember going home one night after a final interview, and I could feel it in my gut. I knew I didn't want to get the job; it would trap me, and I'd regret pursuing it.

I printed off my two-week notice that night and quit the next day. My boss and coworkers were in disbelief when they found out, but for the most part, I had tremendous support from the people in my life.

After quitting my job, I moved to Hawaii in June 2022

I heard about a work-stay program at a coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii through my brother and sister-in-law, who had visited Hawaii. You can live on the farm in exchange for 28 hours of work a week. That sounded like a pretty good deal since my income dropped from six figures to $0 overnight.

I put my stuff in storage, packed a carry-on and a backpack, and flew to Hawaii, trading in my Nashville high-rise apartment and rooftop pool parties for a one-floor communal living house with six college kids.

I worked as a tour guide on the farm a few days a week. The rest of the time, I tried to figure out how to make a living as a writer.

I had never been to Hawaii before I moved

Visiting and living in a place are different experiences. Hawaii is a rock in the middle of the ocean — sometimes, it feels like it, but for any of the cons, there are more pros.

It was nice to get a break from city life and a good reminder that the world outside your immediate circle is full of people who live life at a different pace.

I had to get creative to land my first client

I wanted to become a freelance copywriter, but the industry is saturated. Many people are attracted to the opportunity to work for themselves, travel the world, and make money by pressing a few keys on a keyboard.

I spent day after day locked in my bedroom in Hawaii — just me and the geckos — sending cold emails and LinkedIn messages. I got a few nibbles but no bites.

I decided I wanted a car to explore the island. I contacted a local car rental service and noticed the owner's website needed serious copywriting work, so we struck a deal. I'd write his entire website for $500 and an extra month of my rented Dodge Challenger. I had my first client.

I started freelancing with an agency thanks to a cold email I sent. Then, I started posting on LinkedIn and picked a couple of clients up that way. Today, I'm a full-time freelance copywriter and ghostwriter.

I started writing a book in Hawaii before moving to Michigan

While in the work-stay program, I wrote some email copy for the farm. The emails did well, and one day, I sat down with the farm's CEO.

He envisioned writing a book about the history of a local church and using it to raise money to restore some of the murals that had deteriorated over the last 125 years. He asked me if I'd be up for writing the book. I agreed and started splitting my time between leading farm tours and researching for the book.

All roads lead home. I moved to Michigan in March 2023 to be closer to my family.

Quitting finance was worth it, but it's more nuanced than that

In my first full year of freelancing, I made $85,500. Through November 2024, I've made $110,000. I'm grateful to be doing as well as I am, but I can't pretend like I don't think about the money I would've made by staying in finance.

Gratitude and perspective are more important than the number on your tax returns, but it's also ignorant to pretend like money doesn't matter. I wonder sometimes if I was dumb for leaving that money behind — it's impossible not to.

But was it worth it? Am I happier? Would I do it again? Yes, 10 times out of 10.

I had to know if there was something more out there for me

When deciding whether to quit my job to pursue this dream, I heard Tim Ferriss on a podcast recommending playing out the worst-case scenario of a decision in your head. How catastrophic is it? How permanent is the impact? How bad would it really be?

Worst-case scenario 1: If I stay in finance, I'll always regret not discovering what I could've made of myself.

Worst-case scenario 2: I try to write, fail, and get another finance job.

For me, the fear of regret was greater than failure.

Now, I never have to wonder, "What if?" or think about what I could've done with my life. I know the answer.

• Patrick J. Adams left "Suits" after realizing he only stayed for the money.
• He added that he wanted to focus on his marriage to Troian Bellisario.
• The legal drama experienced a resurgence in popularity after being released on streaming platforms.

Patrick J. Adams knew it was time to leave "Suits" after a conversation with his mom.

On Tuesday's episode of "Dinner's on Me" with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the Canadian-American actor said his character's storyline on the legal drama had played out by the end of the seventh season.

"It just all had happened, and I was like, where do we go from here?" said Adams, who played Mike Ross, a Harvard Law School dropout turned unlicensed lawyer.

At that point, he knew his costar and on-screen partner, Meghan Markle, was leaving the show. "And I was like, the only reason to do this was money," he said.

The "Plan B" actor talked to his mom and thought she would ask him to stay. "It was like, financially, you have to do this. It's responsible. You've already put in this much time. Just put in two more years," he recalled. "But really, she was the one who was like, 'Is the only reason you're doing this for money?'"

Adams added that he had no issue with anyone on the show. "It was just like, I've done it. When you reach the end of the thing, there's nothing more. I don't know what else to offer," he said. His mom responded, "Then you should go. You should be done," he recalled.

While Adams left the show after the seventh season in 2018, Gabriel Macht, who plays Harvey Spector, stayed on for the final two seasons.

"Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think about the money that Gabriel made those last two years," Adams said. "But I never regretted the decision for a second. I knew it was the right thing for my marriage."

Adams, who married "Pretty Little Liars" star Troian Bellisario in 2016, had been in a long-distance relationship with her for seven years.

"It was time for us to start our lives. We wanted to be together. We wanted to have kids, which we knew would take a couple of years before we were comfortable doing that," Adams said.

The longer he stayed in Toronto to work on the show, the longer he was "putting on hold this life that I knew I wanted," he said. "It was time to realize that money is great, but, you know, I'd made enough money that I could go and have my life now."

First released in 2011, "Suits" experienced a resurgence in popularity after being rereleased on streaming platforms like Netflix. Nielsen, a media audience analytics firm, found that the show topped its list as the most-streamed television series last year, with 57.7 billion minutes streamed on Netflix and Peacock.

With its resurgence, the show's creator, Aaron Korsh, is developing a spin-off show called "Suits L.A.," which features Macht. Adams is not part of its cast.

A representative for Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Knowing when to leave your job

In the corporate world, feeling unfulfilled in your job may indicate that it's time to move on.

AJ Eckstein told BI that he left his 6-figure consultant job in his dream company after feeling unfulfilled.

"When I started, my self-worth was high, buoyed by the excitement of a new career. As the years passed and my fulfillment waned, my sense of self-worth plummeted, too," he said. He eventually decided to leave his job to build a startup. " Leaving a stable job is risky, but so is staying when you feel unfulfilled," he said.

Similarly, Ashley Tan left her job as a JP Morgan analyst after feeling like she was wasting her life.

"I found it frustrating to have to stick to the old ways of doing things and I didn't feel fulfilled because I knew I didn't want to pursue marketing long-term," she said. Upon quitting, she decided to travel and explore DJing.

"I realize it's up to me to make the life I want a reality. It's been an enlightening change."

• Natalie Fischer quit her corporate job to become a solopreneur creating financial content.
• She's generated over $150,000 from her business in 2024.
• Fischer shares 4 tips for transforming a side hustle into a career.

Being an investing influencer started as a hobby for Natalie Fischer during the pandemic. Now, it's her full-time job.

Like many people, Fischer started seriously getting into the stock market in 2020. The pandemic was a prime entry point: markets were volatile, rates were low, and she had built up a healthy level of savings.

She began sharing her investing journey on social media through Instagram stories and received an outpouring of feedback and questions from family and friends. Fischer couldn't keep up with the barrage of DMs and started a TikTok account, @investwithnat, to create videos answering common investing questions.

In 2023, Fischer took a leap of faith and quit her corporate job to focus full time on finance content creation as a solopreneur, or a one-person business. Now, Fischer creates videos about financial independence on social media platforms and partners with different brands to create user-generated content.

She's been quite successful: so far in 2024, Fischer's brought in over $150,000 in revenue, contracts viewed by Business Insider show. And that's in an increasingly cutthroat creator economy — according to Goldman Sachs, only around 4% of content creators globally generate over $100,000 a year.

If you want to transform your content creation side hustle into an actual career, Fischer has the following advice.

Take the transition slowly

Fischer's success didn't emerge overnight. She started creating TikToks in 2020 but didn't actually start money until a year and a half later, primarily through producing user-generated content for companies. From there, Fischer began getting more sponsorships. She did this while working her full-time job as a data analyst.

"The best way to transition is to actually just start that project on the side while you're working a full-time job and basically wait to see how it goes," Fischer told Business Insider in an interview.

It's helpful to collect data on how your content is performing and monitor progress. Fischer waited until she had a year and a half of revenue data from her side hustle before deciding to take the leap.

"If I just quit my job not knowing how much money I was going to make, that would just be so stressful," Fischer said.

Once Fischer realized the paychecks from her side hustle were at the same level as the paychecks from her corporate job, she felt confident enough to go all in.

Prepare your emergency fund(s)

It's standard budgeting practice to have an emergency fund that can cover three to six months of living expenses. As a solopreneur, Fischer made sure she had not one, but two, emergency funds: one for personal use and one for her business, with enough money to cover six months of expenses for each.

Having a backup plan gave Fischer more bandwidth to focus on growing her business. A business emergency fund also ensured that Fischer would be able to sustain her business even if it encountered financial challenges as she transitioned to becoming a full-time content creator.

If being a solopreneur didn't work out, Fischer's backup plan was to go back to the corporate world, and the emergency fund would help Fischer weather the financial transition.

"That gave me a lot of comfort knowing that if worse comes to worse, I can always get another job," Fischer said.

Monthly income fluctuates, so diversify your income streams

Part of the reason why Fischer wanted to prepare emergency funds was because, unlike receiving a steady biweekly check in the corporate world, her monthly income as a solopreneur fluctuates.

The unpredictability of her income can make financial planning more challenging. Fischer makes sure she has a variety of income streams so she's not overly reliant on a single source of revenue.

Fischer built her baseline income around user-generated content by signing contracts to create content for companies' social media pages, websites, or advertisements. These contracts are month-to-month and easy to project. On the other hand, the frequency of sponsorships are more variable and therefore harder to forecast.

Fischer is also looking to upskill and expand into interactive events. She recently completed her certification in financial education and hosted a money workshop at a conference. Thinking ahead about new business lines, Fischer has her eyes on being a speaker at universities and schools.

You can do both

Being a solopreneur and working a corporate role aren't diametrically opposed.

A year after quitting her 9-to-5, Fischer is now considering getting a part-time corporate role in addition to running her own business.

"I'd be interested in a part-time project management or marketing role to diversify and expand my potential," Fischer said.

Not only does a part-time role provide more predictable income streams, it also provides exposure to new work environments and skills. Fischer has found that as a full-time content creator, she has a lot more flexibility with her time than she did at a traditional office job. Fischer has seen fellow solopreneurs balance a content creation business, a corporate role, and even write a book at the same time.

Fischer's takeaway from the last year of running her own business is to not limit your options as a solopreneur — there are countless ways to build your brand and business.

"I found that I have a lot more time on my hands, and so I'm able to explore different avenues," Fischer said. "I can do it all."

Are you a successful solopreneur looking to share your story? Reach out to Christine Ji at [email protected]