Part Four · 3 of 6

Walking Out of the Zoo

On my first day as a solopreneur, I recorded a short, honest video about what I did that day. Talking to a camera like that and sharing it in public felt very uncomfortable and odd.

But when I decided to quit my nine-to-five, I’d prepared myself for discomfort.

That same week, my mom said to me one morning, “I heard you’re working on side projects. Make sure it doesn’t affect your full-time job.”

“Okay,” I said.

A few days later, a friend asked how I was feeling.

I told her it felt like an animal walking outside the zoo for the first time. Not used to the wild. Excited. But with an even stronger feeling of strangeness.

For more than ten years, my typical day had been defined by my employer. Now, all of a sudden, it was defined mostly by me, and partly by my wife’s schedule and my kids’ school hours.

The change felt liberating. It also felt odd.

I know this path isn’t for everyone. But I kept remembering something Naval Ravikant said: “A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.”