Propaganda I'm not falling for...

'Ambition looks the same for everyone'.

I wasn’t unhappy. I had never hated any of my corporate jobs. And the idea of becoming a full-time freelancer had never crossed my mind.

Yet, I quit my corporate job on March 31, 2023.

Because I knew one thing - my dreams and ambitions had become too big for my cubicle.

One thing about me has stayed constant since the day I picked up my first freelance writing gig for DNA (a now-defunct newspaper) back in college - I’ve always loved working. Even when I was pulling long hours in fast-paced fields like advertising and media, I rarely felt burned out. The deadlines, the energy, the creative chaos. I thrived in it.

But I’ve also never been someone who enjoys doing the same thing every day. I get restless with routine. In fact, I once quit a job simply because it felt too comfortable.

Then came the pandemic, and with it, a quiet shift. I started craving work that made a tangible, on-ground difference. Something beyond the ‘brief’. I began to feel boxed in by traditional work hours and structures. That restlessness, once just creative, had become something deeper

It was also during this time that I started feeling the need to prioritise fitness.

I started feeling the need to travel without having to give an explanation to anyone.

Work with sustainable businesses.

Be a journalist.

Learn German.

Learn Pottery.

Become a farmer.

Live in the mountains for a while (mainly because it wasn’t ‘very me’).

My to-do list was running long, and I started feeling restless.

I quit my corporate job on March 31, 2023. I was terrified. But I knew my dreams needed both time and money. So I braced myself for the hustle. I became my own boss.

At the time, I thought the biggest challenge would be figuring out how to make money. But what came next completely blindsided me.

Here’s something most people don’t talk about when they romanticise being your own boss: suddenly, your life is entirely in your hands.

No fixed hours. No neatly laid out to-do lists. No one to answer to but yourself.

You get to choose.

You can work as much…or as less… as you want. You can choose to sleep in on a Monday. Laze around for days… Rot in bed. Work on your book. Start creating ‘content’. Build something. Abandon it. Start again.

And that kind of radical freedom?
It’s liberating. But it’s also terrifying.

‘Choice’ is scary sometimes.

Because if you’re anything like me, you’re prone to falling into the trap of “I’m not doing enough.”

Since becoming my own boss, I’ve been confronted with parts of myself I didn’t even know existed.
Do I want a mindful life, or do I want to hustle and scale?
How much money is enough?
Will I be seen as not ambitious enough if I never start an agency?
I am ‘the boss’ of my own time now. Why am I squandering my time?
I am ‘the boss’ of my own time now. Why am I not relaxing more?

That’s the strange part about choice. We romanticise freedom, especially online, where the corporate job is cast as the villain, and the freelancer or entrepreneur path is hailed as the ultimate liberation.

But why is no one really talking about what taking control actually entails?

It’s not just flexible hours and working in cafes.
It’s navigating guilt on a Wednesday afternoon.
It’s second-guessing your ambition.
It’s being hyper-aware of time, and yet, unsure how to spend it.

I’ve read countless LinkedIn posts about the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship: how you’re never really on vacation, always accountable, always thinking about the next paycheck.
Yes, it’s rewarding because you’re doing it for yourself.
But here’s another truth that I believe deserves more space:

What if I don’t want to hustle endlessly? What if my version of success is softer, slower, saner?
What if the real win is not just building a business, but building one that feels good to live with?
Of having time to spend with friends and family.
Of writing that book, I have been procrastinating forever.
Of living with the excitement of not knowing what I’ll build next.

That’s the truth I’m sitting with now.
The kind of entrepreneur, freelancer, or creator I want to become, not to prove anything, but simply to be at peace with my definition of ambition.

I choose to stay a solopreneur not because it’s the easiest path, but because it’s the one that lets me work on projects that bring me joy, not just revenue. I’d rather keep things lean than take on work just to cover the cost of building a team.

I want to make enough to live fully and not compromise on my dreams. And yes, that sometimes means working harder than I ever did in my corporate job.

When I travel, I want to really be there and not mentally juggling project updates or chasing monthly targets.

A few well-meaning friends have asked: What’s the future of being a solopreneur? You can only make so much money on your own, right?

To be honest, I don’t know.

But when I look back on the past two years, I feel something I never truly felt before: peace. And that peace feels like success to me.

Has it been easy? No.
Have I doubted my choices? Definitely.
Do I sometimes wonder if I’m wasting my potential? Of course.
Will I feel the same a year from now? Maybe not.

But that’s part of the work; the inner work.
I’m learning to tune out the noise and tune in to me.
To acknowledge my ambition without letting it consume me.
To chase joy, not just scale.

So if you’re someone considering a big shift - quitting a job, starting something new, or simply wondering why your version of success doesn’t match the Instagram blueprint - I have only one suggestion:

Ask yourself what do you want and separate it from what you are supposed to want.

Because there’s no one way to live a life.
You pick a path, you walk it.
And if it doesn’t feel right, you pivot.

Life is made of those pivots.

But if you spend your time second-guessing every step or measuring your life against someone else’s highlight reel, you’ll never feel grounded in your own story.

Remember:
Your “mediocre” life might be someone else’s dream.
And someone else’s dream life might never feel right for you.

So choose your dream.
And live it, with intention. That’s enough. And that’s everything.
And when it’s not…
PIVOT.