I spent years thinking I needed to build a product to escape the employment trap. Spent countless nights and weekends coding stuff nobody wanted.
But I was looking at it all wrong.
Turns out you don't need to build anything. You already have everything you need. Your technical skills are incredibly valuable, especially to people who used to work with you.
Those ex-colleagues who moved on to run engineering teams or started their own companies - they have problems you can solve. Right now. Without building a product. Without a fancy website. Without anything except your expertise and your ability to have a human conversation.
But... wouldn't you need to learn how to sell yourself to do that?
Well - yes and no.
Sales isn't what you think it is. It's not about convincing anyone of anything. It's not about closing techniques or handling objections (that's only useful at a high level).
Fundamentally, it's just talking to people about their problems and offering to help solve them. That's it.
I was terrified of sales when I started. Thought I needed to become someone else, someone slick and persuasive - or god forbid - extraverted. But it turns out I just needed to be curious and helpful.
The hard part isn't the selling. The hard part is giving yourself permission to start before you have everything figured out. To reach out before you have a perfect pitch. To punch through your impostor syndrome and realize you're already awesome.
You don't need to learn complex sales frameworks or manipulation techniques. You don't need to become someone you're not.
You just need to be willing to have honest conversations about problems and solutions.
The rest will follow.