What Happens When You Finally Stop Playing Safe

Happy Wednesday, friends!

I still remember that day.

February 2021, 5 years ago now.

No build-up. No hesitation.

His voice seemed surprised. “What are you going to do?”

And that’s when it hit me, I didn’t actually know. I had no grand plan, no next step carefully mapped out. I just knew I couldn’t keep doing this. Maybe I’d travel. Maybe I’d study. Maybe I’d just figure it out.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Because the only thing I knew was that I had reached my initial FIRE goal with $600k and a condo.

So I didn’t have an exact plan for what I was going to do, but I knew I couldn’t spend any more time in there. I hated working there every day. I didn’t like my co-workers, and as the stock market kept booming, my motivation to earn a steady income was reduced by every single day.

Anyway. As I hung up the phone, I felt something I hadn’t felt in years.
Clarity. Lightness. Peace.

People often called it brave later on. “You were so brave to quit your career like that!” “I wish I could be brave like you.”

Because I wasn’t afraid of quitting. I was afraid of staying.

Afraid of waking up every morning unexcited about everything on my to-do list. Afraid of sitting in traffic 1-2 hours a day for the privilege of doing work that didn’t matter to me. Afraid of chasing promotions that only paid for a slightly nicer prison cell. The thought of living like that for another 35 years, that terrified me more than any risk of quitting ever could.

That wasn’t bravery. That was survival.

Have you ever noticed how a job, for so many people, becomes a beautifully disguised prison?

• You have to wake up when someone else says.

• Dress how someone else says.

• Show up where someone else says.

• Do work you wouldn’t choose, for goals you don’t care about, for people who might not even notice you’re there.

Then you get a little reward, a paycheck, just big enough to cover the basics so you can come back and do it all again on Monday.

And somehow, we call that normal. Responsible. Safe.

But here’s the wild part: the cell door’s unlocked. You can just... leave.

And yet most of us don’t.

We stay. We justify. We tell ourselves stories about timing, about security, about responsibility. But at the heart of it, we stay because we’re scared. Scared of what happens when there’s no plan. When the next step is just a blank space waiting for us to scribble something messy and real.

The funny thing is that now, when I reflect back on this, 5 years later, I didn’t need money to quit in the first place. Or maybe like $50-100k. I could have quit much sooner. Because there isn’t, like, you’re never going to work again. There will always be ways to earn money. Humans will be bored without anything to do. You will find a way. Every human being has some skills they are slightly better at than eg. their friends. Double down on these skills. Trust yourself.

The world isn’t scarce, it’s overflowing.

Think of all the money circulating on this planet, trillions upon trillions of dollars moving through hands, accounts, screens, pockets. You only need a few thousand to live comfortably, a few more to live well. Out of all that abundance, all that flow, you only need a small slice.

It’s ridiculous to believe in scarcity when everything around us screams abundance. Food. Money. Love. Jobs. Ideas. Experiences. There’s more of everything than you could ever possibly use up.

So why live like everything’s running out?

Why picture the worst possible outcome, going broke, failing, crawling back to your cubicle, when the best outcomes are just as real?

People say they’re afraid of failure. But most of the time, they’re afraid of success, of the changes it brings, of who they might become.

Success means responsibility. Taxes. Employees. Expectations. Success means stepping out from the crowd and saying, I built this. That level of ownership scares people more than a collapse.

So what are we really afraid of?

Failure? Please. The real tragedy isn’t failing. It’s never trying.

So quit if you need to. Stay if you love it. But whatever you do, stop existing in scarcity.

Stop focusing on what could go wrong, and start imagining what could go right.
Because that thought, that energy, is what moves the world.

Everything you want is out there. Floating in abundance. Waiting for you to reach.

Don’t let fear chain you to comfort.
Don’t let your dreams fossilize into regrets.
Try your best.
Think of the good things that will happen.

1 month later, I doubled my money on Ethereum. Maybe luck? Or just blind dumbness?

I don’t know, though, but this was the moment I went full-time in crypto.

And I haven’t looked back ever since

…

See you around, anon.