Quit $450k job to go fastlane: smart or not?

[Lionhearted]

This guy so needs to read your books MJ! Do what you love and "Action faking" (I suspect) meet! Eight months and the guy has NOT found a "reliable income stream" as a senior software engineer! Would you like fries with that?
This is so classic,"Although I'm just starting and don't have any dependable streams of income yet, I'm going to trust the process that if I do work that energizes me, good things will happen." OMG! Like I said, he needs to read your books.
They won't post the story of him going back to a job he doesn't like to pay the bills. Living in the Bay Area isn't cheap. GLTA
I quit my job as a Netflix engineer making $450,000 a year. The money wasn't worth the boredom.

 

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[Mathuin]

And now he is a career coach?

Still mostly selling his time for money, just a lot less money (probably).

 

[Antifragile]

This guy so needs to read your books MJ! Do what you love and "Action faking" (I suspect) meet! Eight months and the guy has NOT found a "reliable income stream" as a senior software engineer! Would you like fries with that?
This is so classic,"Although I'm just starting and don't have any dependable streams of income yet, I'm going to trust the process that if I do work that energizes me, good things will happen." OMG! Like I said, he needs to read your books.
They won't post the story of him going back to a job he doesn't like to pay the bills. Living in the Bay Area isn't cheap. GLTA
I quit my job as a Netflix engineer making $450,000 a year. The money wasn't worth the boredom.

Thanks for sharing this. I have a new term for this, spin off from MJ's... this one is idiocracy.

At the time, I thought I would stay with Netflix forever. I made $450,000 a year, got free food daily, and had unlimited paid time off. It was the Big Tech dream.

When I left almost four years later in May 2021, everyone thought I was crazy.

I wonder what made them think that way?

My parents were the first to object. For them, my quitting was throwing away their hard work of immigrating to the US.

2nd gen...

My mentor was the second to object. He said I shouldn't quit without another job lined up because I'd miss out on leveraging my high salary when negotiating my pay at the next job. Their comments made me pause for all of three days before I spoke with my manager about leaving.

Good thing this guy had a mentor to listen to... oh wait... he paused for 3 days

Eight months later, I'm confident it was the right decision.

Because he's now a career coach!

The world is going to hell if this is what makes Yahoo news.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Because he's now a career coach!

Odd, because he was miserable at his career.

 

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[Andy Black]

I don’t see anything wrong with the story. He doesn’t mention being bored in it either … maybe someone else wrote that article subject line?

I think he’ll be fine.



“I was putting off my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, and C0VlD-19 was a constant reminder that I might not be here tomorrow to pursue them.

I was scared that my tombstone would read: "Here lies Michael. He spent his life doing work he never wanted to do. Rest in peace."

and:

“I thought my life would be over after leaving Netflix. I was worried that I'd have no social life, as it had previously revolved around work.

But the opposite happened. I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators.

I now feel a deep calmness inside me, an unshakable belief that everything will be OK, even if any future success is not guaranteed right now.”

 

[Antifragile]

Odd, because he was miserable at his career.

That’s what makes it so funny and tragic at the same time.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I don’t see anything wrong with the story. He doesn’t mention being bored in it either … maybe someone else wrote that article subject line?

I think he’ll be fine.



“I was putting off my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, and C0VlD-19 was a constant reminder that I might not be here tomorrow to pursue them.

I was scared that my tombstone would read: "Here lies Michael. He spent his life doing work he never wanted to do. Rest in peace."

and:

“I thought my life would be over after leaving Netflix. I was worried that I'd have no social life, as it had previously revolved around work.

But the opposite happened. I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators.

I now feel a deep calmness inside me, an unshakable belief that everything will be OK, even if any future success is not guaranteed right now.”

Yes, sounds like he's got an itching to go Fastlane.

 

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[Lionhearted]

And now he is a career coach?

Still mostly selling his time for money, just a lot less money (probably).

View attachment 43776

I'm going to see if I can contact this guy and suggest he read MJ's books. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

 

[Lionhearted]

I don’t see anything wrong with the story. He doesn’t mention being bored in it either … maybe someone else wrote that article subject line?

I think he’ll be fine.



“I was putting off my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, and C0VlD-19 was a constant reminder that I might not be here tomorrow to pursue them.

I was scared that my tombstone would read: "Here lies Michael. He spent his life doing work he never wanted to do. Rest in peace."

and:

“I thought my life would be over after leaving Netflix. I was worried that I'd have no social life, as it had previously revolved around work.

But the opposite happened. I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators.

I now feel a deep calmness inside me, an unshakable belief that everything will be OK, even if any future success is not g

Yes, sounds like he's got an itching to go Fastlane.

Found him on Twitter and messaged him the following: "I kindly suggest reading M.J. Demarco's Millionaire Fastlane . It helped me tremendously in my Entrepreneur journey. I'm not being paid to mention this either. Just some friendly advice. Looks to me like you have a good start. All the best!"

 

[Lionhearted]

Thanks for sharing this. I have a new term for this, spin off from MJ's... this one is idiocracy.


I wonder what made them think that way?


2nd gen...


Good thing this guy had a mentor to listen to... oh wait... he paused for 3 days



Because he's now a career coach!

The world is going to hell if this is what makes Yahoo news.

Did you catch the "Unlimited Time Off"? WTF? He really didn't have to quit, did he? LOL

 

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[Antifragile]

I'm going to see if I can contact this guy and suggest he read MJ's books. "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

Watch out, he might come here to provide his super valuable "Career coaching course" for discounted rate of three easy payments of $_____.

Did you catch the "Unlimited Time Off"? WTF? He really didn't have to quit, did he? LOL

Yes I did. It is one of the things about Netflix that I learned a long time ago. I thought about implementing this in our own business. Did a trial run but found that staff worked more and longer, so I ended my experiment and went back to "normal". The work load does not change, so good people typically take less vacation with this "unlimited time off".


I know I am being a prick here, let me try to redeem myself with an explanation of my thinking.

Bezos quit investment banking because he saw an opportunity far greater, and look at Amazon today. Steve Jobs quit university, same with Bill Gates. They had better things on their minds. Elon Musk took all his wealth from first exit and poured it into PayPal (becoming one of the PayPal mafia) and then did it again, risking it all on SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity.

There is nothing wrong with quitting your job. I did it too and walked away from seven figures (hurts thinking about it even now, years later). I talked to my mentor about it at that time, because it was so much money to leave behind! And Jim told me "So you want your cake and eat it too? This is the price, either pay it or stay". I had a vision, I had a dream and a plan... there was no turning back. And I, like this guy, quit my well paying job. A month later, I had a company registered. Two months later we had an office. Three months later we had our first employee. In the first year we were profitable.

I do not think him quitting is a bad move. I think that quitting without a plan is also fine, as long as you don't go to media to be seen as some "success story" for others to emulate. He lost his motivation and quit. And now he's a career coach?

He does need to read MJs books, come here and learn that entrepreneurship isn't about quitting - it's about adding value. That "I quit" part is F*cking easy. Everyone can do that! If you are going to brag about anything, brag about what you've built, who you've helped and what you've achieved.



And on that, I quit.

 

[heavy_industry]

Well, the guy wanted to pursue something different. Nothing wrong with that. The article however is very cringey.

And as a strategy, saying no to half a million dollars a year wasn't the best move. That money could have been used to finance several startups.

I don't understand why some people want to make their life so cinematic and dramatic. You don't have to give up everything to start a business. You don't have to make dramatic decisions. You don't have to be financially irresponsible. You don't have to be an idiot.

Most empires started as hobbies in a garage.

 

[Lionhearted]

Well, the guy wanted to pursue something different. Nothing wrong with that. The article however is very cringey.

And as a strategy, saying no to half a million dollars a year wasn't the best move. That money could have been used to finance several startups.

I don't understand why some people want to make their life so cinematic and dramatic. You don't have to give up everything to start a business. You don't have to make dramatic decisions. You don't have to be financially irresponsible. You don't have to be an idiot.

Most empires started as hobbies in a garage.

He worked for 7 seven years at those wage levels, being 1st generation American with Asian parents, my guess is he banked a whole lot. You can see that he still lives in the Bay area and after 8 month of no real income he's doesn't sound really worried. I also think he got a TON of free publicity and exposure from the piece but I do agree it's set a bad example because he doesn't state that he has let's say and I'm guessing here $1M to $1.5M in the bank or $5 in the bank but the writer didn't ask when the money would run out, so we don't know and really is the money all that important?LOL
The 99 adage comes to mind "Money, isn't everything..." or "Work life balance...." You get the feeling that the theme is that money doesn't matter as long as you."Love what you do!"
I love delivering value, stacking money, investing and doing it again. I love that a LOT!

 

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[heavy_industry]

He worked for 7 seven years at those wage levels, being 1st generation American with Asian parents, my guess is he banked a whole lot. You can see that he still lives in the Bay area and after 8 month of no real income he's doesn't sound really worried. I also think he got a TON of free publicity and exposure from the piece but I do agree it's set a bad example because he doesn't state that he has let's say and I'm guessing here $1M to $1.5M in the bank or $5 in the bank but the writer didn't ask when the money would run out, so we don't know and really is the money all that important?LOL
The 99 adage comes to mind "Money, isn't everything..." or "Work life balance...." You get the feeling that the theme is that money doesn't matter as long as you."Love what you do!"
I love delivering value, stacking money, investing and doing it again. I love that a LOT!

Yeah, the article probably doesn't tell the full story.
It was deliberately made into a cliche:

The financially successful engineer that reached the peak of his career but was miserable. So he decided to quit his job to pursue his dreams doing what he loves.

There are many things that have been left out and it's not the full picture lol. This kind of story is exactly the confirmation many wantrepreneurs are looking for. The magical life that awaits you once you cross this imaginary line and quit your job, as if anyone gives a shit about you or your dreams.

 

[Miketing]

So he quit his soul-sucking job with no clear path to progression, in exchange for working for himself with the potential of being a "fastlane" entrepreneur. Sounds like he made the right decision to me.

Maybe he didn't enjoy his job at Netflix, but he's proven that he knows how to get a job there or at Amazon. So now he's coaching others who do want to work at those companies to get jobs. He's using his proven expertise to help others and it sounds like he's much happier. This also has the potential for progression and scaling which his job did not.

As well as this, he's helping startups as an interim CTO, which I'm sure pays decently and gives him some great connections and opportunities.

He even says "I spent two years networking within Netflix and applying for every product-manager role I could find. None of my attempts panned out, and I was still doing the same job."
and
"I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators."

So he obviously didn't leave just to "do what you love". He left to pursue bigger things, and the potential of being a successful entrepreneur.

He's now surrounded by successful entrepreneurs who he's learning from, building business skills, and providing value where there's obviously a demand.

So what's the problem here exactly? What else should he have done? Tried to scale up a business straight away with 0 apparent skills aside from software engineering?

 

[Matt33]

Bay area, techie, 7 years of $450k?

My bet is.. he'll be on monster.com looking for work after the crypto Ponzi unravels

 

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[notorious]

This guy probably has more money at a younger age than a lot of people here, I don't think he's that worried.
Getting a FAANG job and clearing 450k a year while you graduated in 2014 is not an easy feat at all.

 

[Andy Black]

So he quit his soul-sucking job with no clear path to progression, in exchange for working for himself with the potential of being a "fastlane" entrepreneur. Sounds like he made the right decision to me.

Maybe he didn't enjoy his job at Netflix, but he's proven that he knows how to get a job there or at Amazon. So now he's coaching others who do want to work at those companies to get jobs. He's using his proven expertise to help others and it sounds like he's much happier. This also has the potential for progression and scaling which his job did not.

As well as this, he's helping startups as an interim CTO, which I'm sure pays decently and gives him some great connections and opportunities.

He even says "I spent two years networking within Netflix and applying for every product-manager role I could find. None of my attempts panned out, and I was still doing the same job."
and
"I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators."

So he obviously didn't leave just to "do what you love". He left to pursue bigger things, and the potential of being a successful entrepreneur.

He's now surrounded by successful entrepreneurs who he's learning from, building business skills, and providing value where there's obviously a demand.

So what's the problem here exactly? What else should he have done? Tried to set up a business straight away with 0 apparent skills aside from software engineering?

^^^ This is what I thought too.

He sounds like a smart guy who knows what he wants and has a track record of getting it. I’d bet he’s saved up more than enough for a bit of runway.

Good for him. If he was my son I’d be proud of him.

I’m curious why we aren't cheering him on from the sidelines.

 

[SSTrey]

I'm a bit confused on the 2 sided views here on what this guy did.
A decision to leave any job & take away one's income is based largely on personal circumstances.

Personally, my available runway would help me decide whether to resign to pursue my goals fulltime. In 2020 I resigned with an 8 month runway.
It's possible, with the amount he earned, this guy has a 16 month runway (or more) even.

Although just quitting may not be the typical smart thing to do to go fastlane, it may have been for him.

 

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[Lionhearted]

I'm a bit confused on the 2 sided views here on what this guy did.
A decision to leave any job & take away one's income is based largely on personal circumstances.

Personally, my available runway would help me decide whether to resign to pursue my goals fulltime. In 2020 I resigned with an 8 month runway.
It's possible, with the amount he earned, this guy has a 16 month runway (or more) even.

Although just quitting may not be the typical smart thing to do to go fastlane, it may have been for him

 

[Lionhearted]

The title of the article,"I quit my job as a Netflix engineer making $450,000 a year. The money wasn't worth the boredom."
The title does not say, "I worked as a wage slave for 7 years was conscientious and saved up a more money than most people will see in their lifetime, devised a plan to get out of the drudgery of the corporate grind and now I'm happier and my prospects are much brighter."

Instead he states that he quit before he was fired because he was,"bored".

• He lost motivation and eventually received his preemptive severance package in May 2021. (no amount given)

He does NOT state that he has a large nest egg.
He does state he quit in May 2021 and
"It's been eight months since I quit my job at Netflix, and I've decided to commit fully to working for myself. Although I'm just starting and don't have any dependable streams of income yet."

Well at the time of the posting of the article it is TWELVE months since he took his "preemptive severance package" and no update as to his income.

Why do we not get a ,"My plan is to (insert plan here) and then (insert plan here). My goals are to (insert goals here) and I'm going to climb to the top of that mountain or they will have to scrape me dead carcass off the side of it!"?

If your son quit a job that was making him almost half a million dollars a year and ONE YEAR later he said to you,

"I'm going to trust the process that if I do work that energizes me, good things will happen."

And that was his only plan. I wouldn't be proud, I would be concerned!

But I'm sure the guy will be alright as he obviously had the skills to land himself a good paying job in the first place.
I'm thinking at this point he burned the bridges at Netflix and certainly will have to eat some crow if he does not make a go of it and has to go back to a boring job.

It would have been a much better story it was a complete and "honest" story about his situation. Instead it reads like the story,"Into the Wild" where the guy is going "Into the Wild" to live off the land and "I'm going to trust the process that if I do work that energizes me, good things will happen." BTW that guy in the story "Into the wild." DIED!

 

[Red]

He sounds like a smart guy who knows what he wants and has a track record of getting it. I’d bet he’s saved up more than enough for a bit of runway.

Good for him. If he was my son I’d be proud of him.

I’m curious why we aren't cheering him on from the sidelines.

This. All the arrogant comments about this guy's life & decisions.... wtf. Let the man do what he wants with his life.

 

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[Lionhearted]

This. All the arrogant comments about this guy's life & decisions.... wtf. Let the man do what he wants with his life.

For me it's not about the guy. I wish him the best! It's about the article and how it puts it out there. It's misleading.

 

[Fox]

When I started working at Netflix, I loved it ​

Working at Netflix was like getting paid to work on case studies you learn about in MBA programs. They made the memos for every product decision available for all employees to read, and I learned so much every day.

Over the next two years, the shine began to wear off. The projects and meetings blended together, and they felt like small variations of each other after a while. The engineering work began to feel like copy and paste.

Then C0VlD-19 happened. The office shut down, and all my favorite parts of work — the socializing, the coworkers, the perks — disappeared.

The only thing left was the work itself, and I didn't enjoy the work anymore.

I wanted to have a bigger effect. For me, deciding how to allocate engineering resources was more relevant to my career goals than the engineering work itself, and I wanted to transition into product management to lead these efforts.

As a result, I spent two years networking within Netflix and applying for every product-manager role I could find.

None of my attempts panned out, and I was still doing the same job.

The issue was that Netflix didn't have any processes in place to support horizontal role changes like this. I've never seen an engineer successfully transition to product management at the company.

C0VlD-19 changed my outlook on work​

I was working at a prestigious company making a good living for myself. It's hard to give up a salary — something tangible — for intangible things like your youth and your time. But I couldn't shake the knowledge that many people had lost their lives during the pandemic.

I was putting off my dreams of becoming an entrepreneur, and C0VlD-19 was a constant reminder that I might not be here tomorrow to pursue them.

I was scared that my tombstone would read: "Here lies Michael. He spent his life doing work he never wanted to do. Rest in peace."

The longer I stayed at Netflix, the greater the chance the tombstone would be my reality.

Life after Netflix​

I thought my life would be over after leaving Netflix. I was worried that I'd have no social life, as it had previously revolved around work.

But the opposite happened. I've met more people through starting my own business — other entrepreneurs, writers, and creators.

I now feel a deep calmness inside me, an unshakable belief that everything will be OK, even if any future success is not guaranteed right now.

It's been eight months since I quit my job at Netflix, and I've decided to commit fully to working for myself. Although I'm just starting and don't have any dependable streams of income yet, I'm going to trust the process that if I do work that energizes me, good things will happen.

The article is written in a very basic style and it seems heavily edited.
So it's hard to know the tone/meaning behind a lot of what is written here.

But seems it's just a guy who was sick of working at Netflix and decided to quit to find something he would actually enjoy doing. It looks like he gave them plenty of chances to give him more stimulating work first too.

"I wanted to have a bigger effect"

I think good for him - he worked there for 4 years and seems he was mentally over it.
A lot of people would just stay for the cash and waste another ten years.

 

[Andy Black]

Nowhere in the article did it state he was bored. I suspect someone else wrote the headline to get clicks and controversy. Maybe the guy wrote it, but I suspect not.

The article reads like he’d tried to progress his career at Netflix and when it didn’t pan out he took matters into his own hands and cut the chord. Again, I say good for him. He’s got his own hands on his own steering wheel.

I was an IT contractor for 10 years. I walked away from €10k/mth contracts when I had an inkling that I could help businesses make more money with Google Ads.

I had hardly any runway, was a new dad, and was about to get married. The revenue I had from Google Ads consulting might have been €200/mth at the time. I backed myself and had faith I’d “figure it out”.

The guy in the story has skills and can get a job at will. He believes he can “figure it out”. It doesn’t sound like he needs a blueprint and all the lights to be green before he lets off the handbrake.

I’d rather my kids shoot for the stars than settle for a “life of quiet desperation” - especially when they’ve runway, FU skills, and a “can do” attitude.

I think the article is trying to push controversy and debate since that equals shares, attention, and ad revenue. I don’t knock them for doing that either. I bet they put it out there and are delighted at all the arguments it’s stirred up.

 

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[Lionhearted]

Nowhere in the article did it state he was bored. I suspect someone else wrote the headline to get clicks and controversy. Maybe the guy wrote it, but I suspect not.

The article reads like he’d tried to progress his career at Netflix and when it didn’t pan out he took matters into his own hands and cut the chord. Again, I say good for him. He’s got his own hands on his own steering wheel.

I was in IT for 10 years. I walked away from €500/day contracts when I had an inkling that I could help businesses make more money with Google Ads.

I had hardly any runway, was a new dad, and was about to get married. The revenue I had from Google Ads consulting might have been €200/mth at the time. I backed myself and had faith I’d “figure it out”.

The guy in the story has skills and can pick up a job at will. He believes he can “figure it out”. It doesn’t sound like he needs a blueprint and all the lights to be green before he lets off the handbrake.

I’d rather my kids shoot for the stars than settle for a “life of quiet desperation”. Especially when they’ve runway, FU skills, and a Can Do attitude.

I think the article is trying to push controversy and conversation since that equals shares, attention, and ad revenue. I don’t knock them for doing that either. I bet they put it out there and are delighted at all the arguments it’s stirred up.

From me personally, I’d like to “lead with positivity”.

Just my 2c. I’m not having a dig at anyone. I’m just saying what I see.

Agree with you. The guy will be fine. He's a senior software engineer in America! If he can't make a go of it he probably doesn't have a pulse!
I think the story was more click bait than anything else and it perpetuates the "Do what you love myth!" The myth is you don't need a plan you just need to "love what you do" and it will all come together for you. MJ states that's BS and I 100% agree with him.
I don't believe in doing what you hate either! I do believe that you can use a job you don't enjoy as tool to transition to your dream life (especially if it's paying you $450K a year!). Having that dream and ambition will make doing that job much more bearable.
Yeah, this job sucks but in two years I will have the start up capital and the chops to be a very successful (insert your title here) and I will be done doing this crap job FOREVER!
You may "love" suntanning all day long but I don't think it will pay the rent for you. If you can figure out a way make your "love" of suntanning all day long pay the rent, MORE power to you.
BTW I figured out how to make suntanning all pay! Rent boats at the beach you suntan at and sell ice cream and water while you're at it on the side!
Of course you will need money to buy the boats, ice cream, water and coolers to this because no one is going to give it to you just because "You love what you do!"
GLTA

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The guy sounds like he needs a challenge.

As an entrepreneur with no one to give him a paycheck while he takes weeks off at a time, generous vacations and benefits, he indeed will find that challenge. Will he rise to the occasion? With a great skill set, he will definitely find it less challenging than the average Joe.

I wish him luck.

think the story was more click bait than anything else and it perpetuates the "Do what you love myth!"

More and more billionaires and HNW individuals are exposing this myth.

Nowadays people who preach this nonsense are social media nobodies, dead blog bloggers, authors with books to sell, and newbie entrepreneurs who don't know any better.

Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph: ‘Follow your dreams’ is ‘terrible advice’

At Cape Cod Community College's commencement ceremony, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph said a popular piece of advice doesn't actually help young people reach their goals.

www.cnbc.com

 

[socaldude]

“Do what you love” or “follow your passion” is probably the worst advice of all time in business and entrepreneurship.

You are more likely to be successful doing “what you hate”. You think it’s fun dealing with customers or employees or dealing with the IRS?

A total deviance from any true mechanics of maximizing utility for yourself or the marketplace or economy. You might as well have a “lottery mindset” or “sidewalker mindset”. As it doesn’t matter what answer you give to a math equation, it’s still wrong.

True entrepreneurs are passionate about seeing a smile on their customers face or seeing raving 5 star reviews.

 

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[BAUCE]

one of the top most liked comments below is depressing that so many people think that way. There's nothing worse than thinking you're owed something for nothing. Well maybe the victim mentality he's shown.

 

[heavy_industry]

one of the top most liked comments below is depressing that so many people think that way. There's nothing worse than thinking you're owed something for nothing. Well maybe the victim mentality he's shown.

"no one is handing out 2M in four years for us"

Yeah, life is very unfair.
Why doesn't someone hand me $2M?

Why do I have to work for a decade to become a top engineer? Can't someone just send me the money?