"Welcome to the Wild"

Reflections on two years out of corporate life. The Wild is a big and exciting and overwhelming place, and it’s where there’s a whole lot of living going on.

“Welcome to the wild.” I love saying this to friends who have left—or been made to leave—the perceived safety of corporate employment. The Wild is quite the place and I really do celebrate everyone spending at least some time there. It’s where you get to see more of who you are, test your courage and creativity, and hopefully meet and slay some of your monsters.  This is only possible because no one else can give you the plan for your chapter in the wild—you have to write it. 

There is no syllabus or formula. Sure, there are lots of resources and templates and guides for some of the things you want to do, and there will be general principles for happy living you’ll want to implement. But no one has ever or will ever walk your exact path with your personality and ideas and fears and hopes and connections and experiences. The Wild is a big and exciting and overwhelming place, and it’s where there’s a whole lot of living going on.

On the first anniversary of leaving corporate, I wrote a series on LinkedIn I called my “Corporate Exit Diaries.” Six months later, I consolidated those posts into this single post here on More to Your Life.

I stand by my initial reflections, but it’s wild (no pun intented) how much my perspective has expanded and matured in the past five additional months. Here’s a fresh look at “life in the wild”  

Table of Contents:
1. Why did I leave?
2. What have I learned and what has been awesome?
3. Do I have any regrets/what do I miss?
4. Would I go back to corporate? 
5. Recommendations for you.

Why did I leave?

• I was bored, unstimulated, and felt stuck even though I was doing all the “right” things to be fulfilled.

• I wanted growth over comfort, to see more of the world, and to test my mettle.

• I wanted to see what I could do with my financial coaching business by going all in on it. It’s expanding into so much more, but that business was the thing that I left for.

• Under new leadership, it felt like I was regressing rather than progressing in my career. 

• More than anything, though, I had a deep-down knowing that it wasn’t good for my soul to stay any longer. 

What have I learned and what has been awesome?

• The point of life is not to do nothing, or really to have permanent time and location independence. Some FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) people won’t like this very much.

• Passive income is really attractive, and is a worthwhile part of your income plans, but we do ourselves a big disservice when we try to rush it. 

• Well-managed money can stretch farther than you think.

• People are fickle about what they’re impressed by, so don’t try. It’s way better to focus on doing something that makes money, helps people, and that you like, than something that will impress others.

• You can make friends anywhere and the most interesting people are usually off the beaten path, not flashy, or broadcasting their status.

• We actually need very little in the way of material comforts and even essentials to be happy. This is good news, considering that all of us leave every stitch of what we own here when we die, and there could be chapters of life where we have to or choose to walk away from it all. Knowing that I can go without a lot of what felt like necessities before is a pretty empowering realization. 

• Being an entrepreneur is lonely. Add to that, travel can be lonely. I do a pretty great job of connecting with family and friends, and making new friends along the way, but it’s not as constantly exhilarating as movies might portray.

• There’s a solution for basically everything and a lot of what you fear never actually happens.

Do I have any regrets/what do I miss?

• I do miss steady paychecks. I love the income potential of entrepreneurship and am continually working on expanding my business income (thank you for supporting my work here on Substack!), and it feels incredible to make your own money. There is something about having money consistently landing in your bank account every two weeks that makes for easier planning.

• I regret sharing too much about what I’m doing with too many people. It invites way too much input and can muddy your own judgment. I’m learning to be more vague with most people and open up selectively.

• I regret that I didn’t buy a sprinter van to live in :-) People like to ask me where I live on the road, and if I have a van. My answer: “Had I known this chapter would last so long, I absolutely would’ve bought a van.” But I didn’t, so I didn’t.

• Not believing in myself better and sooner. This is part of life in the wild—believing in yourself and trying to move forward even when you don’t. It’s a wrestle, and maybe always will be, but I think I’m getting a little better at it. Things that have helped: 

  • Prayer and meditation 

  • Taking action on my ideas

  • Reading widely—philosophy, business, scriptures, mysteries, classics, self-development

  • Helpful podcasts like Being Well (it’s like free therapy) and Let It Be Easy

  • Trying to find ways to help others

  • Having creative things I do “just because”—doodling is one such activity, collecting cool rocks or sea shells, etc.

Would I go back to corporate?

Three months ago, I would’ve said, “No way, Jose.” But some of that would’ve been stubbornness or pride. Now I would say “Maybe!” It’s not my plan to, but if the right opportunity comes along, or if that finite resource we call money runs low before business is fully funding my life, or if I think it would be good for me to go back, I absolutely would. 

We all do what we need to do, and sometimes I think it’d be fun to have someone else telling me what to do with my time and paying me well for it. There is also a social connection component about it that I sometimes miss, and it would be nice to have a specific reason to move somewhere specific since I’ve come to the conclusion I could be happy anywhere.

Recommendations for you:

Scenario 1: You’re in a job and staying because it’s safe

If you’re in a job and staying only because it’s safe, you might want to challenge yourself on that. Life is always a dance between certainty—or perceived certainty—and uncertainty. Leaving harbor is good for ships meant to sail the open seas. All ships are meant to move, to test the sails, to see new places. You’re no different. You also are meant to test your sails, chart courses, explore the unknown, weather storms, to make more of your life.

Recommendations for you:

• Get ready

• Find areas of your life where you can take risks.

• Start to explore what it’d be like to leave. Journal about it, write about it from multiple angles. What’s the worst possible outcome? What’s the best possible outcome? What’s at stake if you stay? How’s it affecting you to stay?

• Do a lot of listening to your intuition. Reduce the chaos in your life so you can hear it.

• Start doing things like someone who actively wants to leave would be doing (see below).

Scenario 2: You are in corporate/safety zone and actively want to leave

• If you’re wanting to leave and head into the wild, get the roots of your life as healthy as possible. Learn to trust yourself with money, get out of debt as quickly as possible and build your walk-away fund. 

• Start trusting yourself with time by mastering the alarm clock, being more on time to things and planning more realistically. I continue to have to work on this last one — I’m always assigning myself more than I can accomplish in a day. 

• Create good structure for your life. This will be critical as you leave structure and become the only one providing it.

• Make time to work on the thing it is you want to leave to pursue. Get up early to make a dent before work, say “no” to some social invitations to start prioritizing it your own thing.

Scenario 3: You’re in a job and need to stay or want to stay

If you’re in a job and need to stay or want to stay, that’s great. You have your reasons, and I totally “get” that some people love their jobs. I’ve had my own chapters of happy employment, so I’m not throwing any shade on staying. The thing for you to do is to create some healthy distance between you and your job, so you don’t rely on it for all your financial security or sense of identity.

To wrap up, I’ll just say this: I could not have imagined all the places I’d go—literally and figuratively—when I left corporate two years ago. I could not have imagined the people I’d meet, the sights I’d see, the pinch-me moments, the new possibilities I’m entertaining, the shifts in identify.

There have certainly been storms on the open sea, but my sails are getting used. Sometimes more publicly than I would like, but I’m getting used to living more visibly despite what the skeptics think about all of it. There are far more people who celebrate and applaud the risks or who wish they could do it themselves. The good news is, they can. And so can you.