The risks were worth it.

Auth0 (my employer) officially got acquired this week!

I'm seeing a chunk of money from this deal, and it brings me to tears because suddenly in my head it's 2016, and I'm this scared-ass girl in her 20s who just quit her job and sold everything she owned to buy a one-way ticket to Panama and is sure that she's committing career suicide and will never financially recover.

God, I was so scared. And then I spent almost 3 years basically unemployed, exploring Malaysia to Mexico and everywhere in-between. In 2018, I lived off of $15k for the entire year.

I had to. Traveling the world was my dream ever since I was old enough to conceptualize a dream. When I was a child, I would spin my Dad's globe and research in the Encyclopedia wherever my finger would land. There was nothing I wanted more in my life, and I was willing to sacrifice anything to do it.

Getting this money more than makes up for that time I spent away from my career. It's like a sign from the universe saying,

See? It was worth it. Now go do more big things that scare the hell out of you. You have to.

PS: This is totally survivorship bias, and I'm not advocating recklessly quitting your job, or making any huge decision without doing the math- I did the math and I was intentional with skill-building during my travels....

but it was still scary AF haha