The Career Question That Changed Everything

"Would you rather be uncomfortable for the rest of your life or die right now?"

My 9-year-old daughter asked me this as we played in the park yesterday.

I paused, realizing she'd just explained why most people stay in jobs they hate.

We choose prolonged discomfort over the "death" of leaving.

I spent 3 years in management consulting, pushing spreadsheets for Fortune 500 companies. Every Sunday night, I felt this knot in my stomach. Every Monday morning, I counted down to Friday.

But leaving felt like professional suicide.

The stable paycheck. The prestigious firm name. The clear career path.

So I stayed uncomfortable.

Until my brother and I started building Body Boss in our spare time. Learning to code at midnight. Sketching app designs on in notebooks. Failing fast and iterating faster.

The discomfort of not knowing what I was doing felt different than the discomfort of knowing exactly what I was doing - and hating it.

One was growth discomfort. The other was soul-crushing discomfort.

The transition wasn't easy. I took a pay cut to join Big Nerd Ranch as a junior developer. My Jamaican parents questioned why I would ever leave a stable job.

But here's what I learned: The temporary discomfort of change beats the permanent misery of staying stuck.

Today, I'm building products I'm passionate about. This path didn't exist when I was trapped in consulting.

The "death" of leaving my comfortable consulting job gave birth to a career I actually love.

And if I'm being honest, I can feel that familiar restlessness stirring again. The signal that growth might require another leap.

Sometimes you have to jump with your eyes closed, trusting you'll land where you need to be.

My daughter's binary thinking cut through all the complexity we adults create. Sometimes the choice really is that simple.

Stay uncomfortable forever, or embrace the temporary pain of change.

What job did you stay in too long because leaving felt like dying?

Originally posted on LinkedIn on July 6, 2025