As my book launch approaches next month, I'll be sharing some sneak peeks inside. Most of you on this list have already made the jump out of corporate, but a lot of the frameworks, especially this one from Chapter 3 can serve as a good refresher of why you left. Link to the full chapter below. Enjoy.

My layoffs (yes, plural) were my catalyst for going solo, but there were other things brewing beneath the surface like a game of whack-a-mole.
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​Drama - I loved the core work I was doing, but also was getting caught up in office politics and promotion pandering.
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​Burnout - I was working like crazy - which I'd written off as just 'what you do' at an early-stage startup, but I look back at pictures from that time and I was visibly tired, underweight, unwell.
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​Aging - Culturally, I'd never felt closer to my coworkers than at my last company, but at even just 38, I was starting to feel like the old guy in the room - because I was.
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​Social comparison - As much as I tried to keep blinders on, I couldn't help but compare what I was doing, how much I was making, and the titles I'd had to that of my friends, former classmates, and peers.
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And there were more...
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Individually, you notice each of these things pop up here and there, and just kinda swat them away.
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But collectively, they were all compounding on each other like a pressure cooker without me really recognizing it.
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Once the layoff came, no wonder I felt immediate relief instead of panic.
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And it was only after a bit of intentional time off that I started to realize just how much these pressures had been eating up all my mindshare and pulling focus from the work that I loved. From the expertise I'd been hired for.
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Chapter 3 of my new book, The Expert's Privilege, out next month, covers The 7 Wake-up Calls -- the signals / symptoms / dynamics that make you start eyeing the exit.
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Perhaps it's just one. Perhaps it's all of them.
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Either way, I explored each of them in detail because until you truly dissect what's weighing you down, it's hard to make a clear-eyed judgment about whether it's time to do something about it.

If you're interested, find the full text of Chapter 3 here. I'd love to hear what you think.

And if you have friends in your life who are stuck in corporate and starting to eye the exit, consider forwarding this email, or directing them to wesbook.com to learn more about the book.

💡

-Wes