10 People Who Will Inspire You To Quit Your Day Job

Your day job is just a gig that keeps you going while you get your passion projects off the ground. To see more people fighting to live their passions, watch Billion Dollar Buyer. Catch the new season Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC!

1. Walt Disney

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One of Walt Disney's first careers was at the Kansas City Ad Company where he created commercials using the cutout animation technique. He had always had a strong interest in drawing cartoons by hand, and he started experimenting more and more with animation. He ended up leaving the world of advertising to start his own animation business where he was free to let his imagination run wild, eventually creating the famous animated mouse we all know and love!

2. Kristen Wiig

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Long before she was bustin' ghosts or making us laugh on Saturday Night Live, Kristen Wiig was hired to work at a plastic surgery clinic in Arizona to draw images of clients' bodies after surgery. However, she never showed up to her first day on the job because that was the same day she realized her true dream was to pursue a career in acting. She packed her bags, drove to Los Angeles, and never looked back!

3. Jerry Greenfield

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Jerry Greenfield tried to take the safe path in life and go to medical school. However, he applied twice and couldn't get in. After that, he decided to take a risk and start a food-related business with his grade-school friend Ben Cohen. You probably know the two of them better as Ben & Jerry.

4. Tory Burch

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Tory Burch started with a career in fashion, but not as a designer! She held multiple jobs in the industry, from small writing gigs to public relations roles, until she finally opened a small boutique of her own in 2004. Burch followed her creative instincts and went from writing the material descriptions on clothing tags to designing the clothes themselves!

5. Colonel Sanders

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Before becoming the Kentucky Colonel and King of Fried Chicken, Sanders ran a service station. In addition to the usual gas station offerings, Sanders would serve hot meals to travelers and truck drivers, but fried chicken wasn't even on the menu yet! Sanders followed his passion for food and opened up a restaurant across the way that ended up becoming the birthplace of his famous tasty chicken!

6. Kurt Vonnegut

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Before he became one of America's most celebrated novelists, Kurt Vonnegut was a public relations guy for General Electric. Vonnegut said, “The job required my visiting the scientists and talking to them and asking them what they were up to. Every so often a good story would come out of it.” Seems like he was right, because his work with GE inspired his first novel, Player Piano.

7. Erin Brockovich

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Early in her career, Brockovich worked in management at Kmart, as a beauty pageant contestant, and eventually as a clerical worker at a law firm. During her work with the law firm, Brockovich discovered that Pacific Gas & Electric may have allowed chemicals to seep into the water of a California desert town. Her discovery led to the case getting settled for $330 million and launched Brockovich's career as an environmental activist and consumer advocate.

8. Albert Einstein

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In his early career, Einstein was working as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland. It wasn't going well. He tried to get a promotion from patent clerk third class to patent clerk second class, but his promotion was rejected. He thought about quitting to become a high school teacher but wasn't sure that would work out. He wasn't able to make that gig permanent when he had tried before. Then, in 1905, the beginnings of the Theory of Relativity began to form for Einstein, and he became the famous physicist you know of today.

9. Sara Blakely

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Prior to changing the female shapewear industry forever, Sarah Blakely worked as a door-to-door fax salesperson. One day she wanted to wear white pants without worrying about awkward undergarment lines, so she cut the feet of her control top pantyhose, and Spanx were born! She put all her time and money behind this impromptu idea, and now it's worth $1 billion. Blakely turned her simple wardrobe hack into a product that helps women everywhere feel comfortable and beautiful in anything they wear.

10. Harrison Ford

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It may be hard to believe, but the Indiana Jones struggled to make it in the movie business at first — so much so that Harrison Ford became a carpenter to make ends meet. But the Force was strong with this one, and he put his carpentry days behind him when he accepted his breakthrough role as Han Solo in Star Wars.

To see more people fighting to live their passions, watch Billion Dollar Buyer. Catch the new season Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC!

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