Hey everyone, this week I had a significant anniversary.

It was the 10 year anniversary of being self-employed.

And I wrote up a tweet thread that you may have seen, but if not, I wanted to record

this message for the podcast because of how meaningful this moment was for me.

And also because I think that what I was saying here might help some of you.

I've never revealed so much personally, but given the feedback that I've already gotten,

I think it's been well worth it.

Here's what I wrote.

I almost never post anything personal on Twitter, but today is the 10th anniversary

of my being self-employed.

And for anyone who needs to hear this, I feel compelled to tell the story of how this

leap has led me to more career success than I ever could have imagined.

10 years ago today, and by the way, I published this April 12th, I began working for myself.

I had been working at a full-time job where I felt that if I didn't quit, they were going

to fire me.

This was actually my second job in a row where I thought I was about to be fired.

Back in my 20s, I had tried freelancing before, and while I'd had some publishing success,

I had failed pretty miserably financially and had amassed five figures in credit card

debt.

This time around, my late 30s, I was definitely afraid of that happening again.

I imagined myself telling my parents that I was going to freelance again, and my mom

having a heart attack and dying.

...