6 years ago, I got fired for the first time.
Despite the shock & confidence hit, it was the best thing to happen to my career.
Here’s what I’ve gone & done since:
Crafted a freelance income stream (2018-20)
Worked remotely in South Africa & Brazil (2018-20)
Launched Prod MBA as a bootstrapped, solo-founder business (2020)
Used that business to craft a 4-hr workday & financial freedom
Prioritised health & hobbies (e.g. surfing on a Tuesday afternoon)
Coached 350+ PMs, learning a huge amount about product, leadership, communication & people in the process
Great, Henry. Sounds like a nice story.
But why is this relevant to me & my product career?
The Danger of Self-Limiting Narrative
I share this transformation not to boast.
Nor to show what’s possible for you.
But as a warning.
Because I was deeply unhappy in that role, yet kept making excuses to stick with it.
I set a timeline for when to leave, but kept pushing it back.
I lacked motivation or interest in my work, and let that translate to poor quality work.
We spend so much team researching the tactical stuff (e.g. how to do product discovery better, or how to build a great roadmap) that we forget the psychological stuff:
I.E. How are you getting in your own way? How are you limiting ourselves? What kind of beliefs are holding you back?
Because, when I look back over my own career, the tactical stuff didn’t really matter.
Sure, it helped me get a little bit better each day.
But it didn’t help me make the big leaps in my career that unlocked more fulfilment, more financial freedom, more freedom of time.
What helped me make those big leaps?
Questioning my beliefs.
Specifically, questioning the self-limiting beliefs that form part of a larger self-limiting narrative that was controlling your life.
One example of this in my own life, back in 2016:
A self-limiting belief:
“I should work here for at least 6 months before I quit, or it won’t look good on my CV.”
This formed part of a broader self-limiting narrative that held me back from what I really wanted to do in life:
“I want to start my own business to enjoy freedom of money & time. But I need to work for someone else for 5 more years to build up more experience.”
By starting to recognise these self-limiting beliefs, I started to question the self-limiting narratives that were holding me back.
For example, when I decided to start my own business, a self-limiting belief that I overcame was this:
“I need to find a co-founder to manage sales & marketing.”
I didn’t.
That belief really came from a higher-level narrative of “I’m not good at sales. I can’t sell. And I can’t start a business without a co-founder to take ownership of sales.”
In reality, that simply wasn’t true. It was just a story I had told myself - and, on reflection, it was clear I was simply looking for a co-founder as an emotional crutch, rather than because I needed specific skills in somebody.
Once I realised this, I was able to make progress launching & building a business - and a business on my own terms.
The Danger of 6/10
Luckily in my case, I was forced to make a decision. Being fired forced me to try something else. That became freelancing & consulting, which in turn formed a platform to launch my own business.
If I hadn’t got fired, I might still be in a job I hated, unfulfilled, still waiting for that monthly pay check, still stuck in endless meetings, working 12-hour days.
Many people are not as lucky.
They remain in limbo, living a 6/10 life, 6/10 career, like I was:
A decent salary.
An OK job.
An “I can’t complain” kind of life.
Sometimes you need that shock to the system to push you to do what you really want to do — or you can start questioning where you are holding yourself back - and take action to change direction.