AI Summary
5 min readIn 2017, Paul Millerd quit a $250,000 consulting job in New York City with no plan. He had been chasing prestigious companies, but the work never fulfilled him. After being rejected from other jobs and offered less money elsewhere, he simply quit—the first time in his life he let life emerge without a predetermined path. Six years later, he has built a career as a self-published author, earning over $125,000 in royalties from his book The Pathless Path, and is on track to beat his previous year's total revenue of $249,000. But the numbers tell only part of the story. The real lesson is about how he made the leap, why he turned down a major publishing deal, and what he learned about finding work that sustains the soul.
The Decision to Quit and the Cost of Freedom
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:26) **Quitting the Default Path** - Paul describes leaving a $250k consulting job in 2017 with no plan, driven by a desire to break free from the rat race.
- 2 (03:00) **Book Income Numbers** - Paul shares the financial reality of self-publishing, from $50k in year one to on-track for over $125k in year two.
- 3 (03:43) **Discovery of Writing** - Paul stumbled into writing through a 100-day Quora challenge and a blog about his Lyme disease.
- 4 (04:18) **The Pain of Corporate Life** - Paul describes his desperate drive to join prestigious companies and his eventual disillusionment.
- 5 (05:17) **Why He Rejected Penguin Random House** - Paul turned down a major publishing deal to keep creative control and higher royalties.
- 6 (06:07) **Writing and Publishing Process** - Paul reveals the simple mechanics of writing a book and getting it to market in days.
- 7 (08:09) **The Pathless Path Philosophy** - Paul explains the core idea of his book: committing to finding work that sustains your soul without knowing the outcome.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
I Quit My $250K Job To Become an Author
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In this video, I flew out to Austin Texas to talk to Paul Millerd - the guy who quit a cozy $250,000 corporate consulting job to write a book. When Paul first started his journey to become an author and solopreneur, he ran into a lot of problems. But, eventually he found his way using a mindset he calls "The Pathless Path". He shares how The Pathless Path help him find his passion, why he chose to self-publish his book, and exactly how much money he’s made as a self published author. Hope you guys enjoy!
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