Laid off at 41, rebuilt in public

A surprise layoff after eleven years inside the same company. I spent ninety days building one tiny thing in public — and it became the next job.

The path, in milestones.

1. 2024

   The Tuesday email

   Got the calendar invite at 9:14 AM. By 9:45 I was logged out of every system I had built over a decade. The grief was real.

   Lesson: Your identity is bigger than your job. Don't confirm what they take.
2. 2024

   Ninety days of building in public

   Set a rule: ship one tiny improvement to a tool I needed, every day, publicly. Most days nobody clapped. Some days strangers did.

   Lesson: Public consistency compounds even when the audience doesn't.
3. 2024

   The offer that wasn't a job

   Day 78, a founder DM'd me asking if I'd take a contract instead of a salary. I would have called this 'unstable' in 2023; I called it freedom in 2024.

   Lesson: The shape of the next thing rarely matches the shape of the last thing.