Most of my writing encourages people to start their own businesses by building a personal brand.
But the truth is, entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone.
Being self-employed has been the most demanding, unrelenting challenge of my career.
Because the hardest part isn’t building a brand—
it’s confronting everything that stands in the way of becoming the person who can.
There’s no one you can turn to but yourself.
No boss to report to. No team to lean on. No committee to offer input.
Just you, alone in an endless hall of mirrors.
And those mirrors don’t flatter.
Some are distorted, some uncomfortably accurate.
Some beautiful, some sharp and ugly.
All of them asking the same question: Who are you, really?
Entrepreneurship forces you to face yourself—again and again.
You discover strengths you didn’t know you had, and weaknesses you tried to ignore.
One day, you demonstrate patience. The next, you break in frustration.
I’ve felt joy, fear, rage, freedom, satisfaction, embarrassment—
and more identity deaths than I can count.
In the creator community, we know how common burnout is.
People vanish for weeks, sometimes months, without explanation.
Many fall to the hall of mirrors.
The relentless self-confrontation.
The pressure to show up as someone still being formed.
It bends the mind.
And sometimes, it breaks the spirit.
But I’ve also seen what’s born on the other side of that destruction.
When you dig deep—into your body, your soul, your story—
and rebuild something meaningful, something true,
something that speaks to someone else’s pain or possibility...
That’s when you realize—what died wasn’t you. It was the lie you thought you had to live.
After that, it’s hard to imagine doing anything else.
Not because it’s easy—
but because it demands the death of who you were
in service of who you're becoming.
This path has stripped away so many of the comforts I used to cling to:
physical, mental, emotional.
Crutches, vices, and routines I leaned on to stay small.
They don’t belong here anymore.
And if you’re walking this path too, just know:
You’re not alone.
You’re part of a movement that’s rewriting what it means to work, to create, to lead.
What began as The Great Resignation
is becoming The Rising Independence.
And for people like us—those who choose to build for ourselves instead of follow someone else’s map—there’s no turning back.
I often think of a scene from the end of Gattaca, where Ethan Hawke’s character, Vincent, is swimming in the ocean with his genetically engineered brother, Anton.
Anton falls behind—confused, desperate, gasping for answers.
“How are you doing this, Vincent?” he yells.
And Vincent turns back and says:
“I never saved anything for the swim back.”
That moment isn’t about stamina.
It’s not about strength.
It’s about conviction.
Vincent had already decided there was no return trip.
He had given everything to who he was becoming.
No backup plan. No reserved energy.
No room left for doubt.
That’s where I am.
Maybe that’s where you are too.
And it’s not dramatic to say the thought of going back feels like dying.
Because in many ways, it would be.
Returning to a 9-to-5—
to the hierarchy, the dimming of your voice, the quiet resignation—
would mean killing off the part of you that finally came alive.
It would mean silencing the voice that whispered: “There’s more for you than this.”
You’ve tasted freedom.
Not just financial—but existential.
The kind that comes from creating your own path,
even when it’s uncertain, even when it’s brutal.
You’ve felt what it’s like to own yourself.
To direct your days.
To speak your truth—out loud.
And once you’ve tasted that, even briefly,
the thought of going back feels like swallowing poison.
It’s not ego.
It’s not stubbornness.
It’s soul recognition.
That’s why there’s no turning back.
So if you’re tired—if you’re in the deep water now, with nothing saved for the swim back—remember this:
You don’t have to drown.
You can rest.
You can float.
You can ask for help.
But don’t turn around.
You’re not lost.
You’re not broken.
You’re becoming someone unrecognizably true.
And that kind of transformation?
It only happens out here—in the deep.
I coach creators in the deep water—the ones who choose to keep swimming forward.
If you’re ready to become who you’re meant to be, check out 5-Star Creator.
It’s for the ones not saving anything for the swim back.
