Nobody tells you what a random weekday actually feels like after you leave the sales grind. They talk about the money. They talk about the "freedom." Nobody explains the weird, quiet magic of a Tuesday afternoon that doesn't belong to anyone but you.
This week Derek learned to river surf. On a Wednesday. In the middle of the day. Not a bucket list trip, not a stolen vacation day, just a weekday afternoon on the water because he felt like it.
I ran a Hyrox in the morning, wandered around New York for a few days, then flew down to DC to see my sister. None of it happened on a weekend. None of it required a PTO request or a "hey do you mind covering my pipeline while I'm out" Slack.
The thing nobody warns you about
When you leave the corporate track, everyone assumes the win is the money or the location or the "not answering to a boss." Those are real. But they're not the thing.
The thing is your calendar stops being color coded by somebody else's priorities. QBRs. Pipeline reviews. "Quick syncs" that eat two hours. Blackout weeks in Q4 so you can't take time off when your family is home for the holidays.
You don't realize how much of your life is being rented out until you get it back.
4th of July, no PTO required
For the 4th, Derek and I will both be out of town, separately, doing our own thing. I'm taking the camper out to Malibu for a few days. No PTO to burn. No blackout dates. No manager pinging me at 8pm on a Sunday about the Monday standup.
I used to think freedom meant not working. It doesn't. I work plenty. I love the work. Freedom just means nobody else gets a vote on when.
New win: Anil, 30 days in
Speaking of people getting their calendar back, one of our newer students, Anil Kapur, just landed his first trial client 30 days after joining. Corporate tech and growth consulting background in Europe. No prior business ownership experience. Just a rep who decided to stop waiting.
He's kicking off with a Fire and Security company this week. Derek is running the launch call with him.
Here's what I love about Anil's story: he didn't wait for a perfect niche. He didn't wait to feel ready. He didn't wait for the "right time." He got in, followed the process, and 30 days later he has a client.
The pattern is always the same
It's never the ones with the most polished plan. It's never the ones who researched for six months and built the perfect brand. It's the ones who stopped waiting to feel ready.
Derek didn't wait to be good at river surfing before he tried. Anil didn't wait for a perfect niche before he took his first meeting. I didn't wait to have everything figured out in 2017 before we started building this.
You just start. Then you get better. Then one day you look at your calendar on a Tuesday afternoon and you realize the whole thing belongs to you.
Go do something this week that isn't on anybody else's calendar. Even if it's small. Especially if it's small. That's the muscle you're actually building.
– Dave
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