I had one of the best jobs you could ask for:
software dev, fully remote, great pay.
And I walked away from it to build my own thing.
From the outside that looks reckless. For the first year it felt reckless too:
$0 MRR, savings shrinking, no proof I was right.
Here's what the good job couldn't give me: the chance to own the outcome. Good or bad, I was fully in control.
Bazzly's at $5K MRR today. But even at $0, I knew I couldn't go back to wondering "what if."
Some trades aren't about the money. They're about who you become.
My non-prestigious tech friends just don't understand that retweeting their product launch or commenting on their LinkedIn job announcement is career suicide for me. Like, I'm raising money from Tier 1 VCs man. I can't retweet your non-VC backed product launch bullshit. I'd look like a schmuck who pals around with non-ambitious, non-prestigious people. No one worth a shit would invest in me. My other friend asks "bro did you see my LinkedIn post? I got a new job!" yeah I did buddy but I'm not commenting "congrats!" on it. Your new company has literally never been on a Blind tier list, I've never heard of it, it would embarrass me to be associated with you. My reputation would be over. Right now they all think my core friend group consists of Exeter alum and I'd like to keep it that way.
I spent 2 years feeling like i was "grinding" and had basically nothing to show for it. full calendar, zero forward motion. thought i needed more discipline. turned out i needed to actually see what i was doing, not just feel like i was doing a lot