365 Days Ago I Left Google: 3 Lessons I've Learned in Self-Employment
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One year ago today, I walked away from my Software Engineering role at Google. At the time, it felt like the riskiest move of my life. Now, looking back from the other side of 365 days of self-employment, I realize the real risk wasn’t leaving, ironically, it was staying.
Here are the three most important things I’ve learned during my first year of self-employment.
1. Changing Nothing is Risky
We are wired to obsess over the risks of changing course. We weigh the uncertainty of a new venture, the loss of a steady paycheck, and the possibility of failure. But we rarely apply that same scrutiny to the risk of doing nothing different. We discount the danger of continuing what we’re already doing.
Leaving my job helped me realize that had I stayed, the only thing that would be different today is that I’d be one year older and have one less year to pursue what I’m actually interested in. Staying at my job would’ve just been me trading my finite time for a false sense of security. The risk of reaching the end of my career and realizing I never actually tried what I wanted to is far greater than the risk of failing at the thing I wanted to pursue.
2. Leverage is Everything
My most profound realization of the last year is how poorly most people understand leverage. In 9-5 jobs, we are often incentivized to equate impact with hours spent working. But after leaving, I’ve realized that this is not the ideal way to work. Results, above all else, are what truly matter. Instead, you should focus on identifying and attacking the highest leverage item at all times. Which also led me to the realization that writing code wasn’t actually my highest-leverage activity.
Leverage is the art of identifying where a small amount of input leads to a massive output. Identifying your leverage is everything. I learned that I could identify opportunities that take only a few days of focused work but generate the same result or revenue as a full month of working at my 9-5 job. Once you stop trading your time for a salary, you’re can focus on identifying and occupying positions of leverage.
3. 50/50 Rarely Works
It is incredibly difficult to achieve something big when you have one foot in and one foot out. For a long time, I tried to balance the safe path of having a job with the “risky” one of pursuing something on my own. But I realized that having a backup plan was actually nerfing my abilities.
When you always have a Plan B, you unconsciously give yourself a reason not to go all-in because in the back of your mind you realize that you don’t truly need to succeed. It creates a safety net that can drastically affect how you operate. Because of this, at some point, you have to make a decision and commit to it fully. There can’t be a “break glass in case of emergency.” If you’re going to do something meaningful, the first step is committing to swinging big and swinging big requires burning the boats.
Thankfully, the first 365 days of self-employment were great. I’m hoping this next 365 days is even better. I’m excited to see what I learn in my 2nd year of self-employment and hopefully it only gets easier.
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