Leaving a lucrative corporate role is rarely easy, but for one tech professional, the decision was clear from the start. Despite earning nearly $350,000 (approximately ₹3.3 crore) annually at Google, he always envisioned working for himself. The ultimate turning point came after a personal loss in 2022, prompting him to leave the comfortable tech giant, rely on his savings, and launch his own startup.
“People ask when I decided to leave Google. Honestly? Day one. I always knew I wanted to work for myself. But the real turning point was 2022. Google was the best 9-to-5 job I could’ve asked for. It just wasn’t mine,” Kevin Naughton Jr wrote on Instagram while sharing a video of his conversation with Jugal Bhatt.
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“So, Kevin, you are making north of 300,000, almost 350k. When did you decide to leave Google?” Bhatt asked Naughton Jr.
The New York-based man who now runs his own startup answered, “It was kind of on the first day, but in all seriousness, I just kind of knew from the first day, I always knew I wanted to work for myself,” adding, “I always knew I was going to leave.”
{{/usCountry}}The New York-based man who now runs his own startup answered, “It was kind of on the first day, but in all seriousness, I just kind of knew from the first day, I always knew I wanted to work for myself,” adding, “I always knew I was going to leave.”
{{/usCountry}}Though he was aware of his goals, a personal loss became a turning point for Naughton Jr. When Bhatt asked, “What was the turning point?”, the man responded, “In 2022, I lost my dad. So that was like a really big, you know, just wake-up call. You have to do what you want. You have to be happy every day. And I knew that, as great as Google was - I think it's the best nine-to-five job I honestly could have - but it wasn't really what I wanted to do every day.
Bhatt asked. “How did you finally leave? Like, what was the final thing that you did before you left?” The former Google techie explained, “Yeah, so something that's funny is I'm actually pretty conservative as a person in terms of taking risks. But in my head, I saw it as I had years of runway saved up.”
He continued, “And after I had a conversation with one of my best friends, he told me… ‘if you don't need to work for three years and you're not going to keep working for yourself after the third year, if it's not working, you just go back to a job. Any money you're saving after the third year, for example, is a waste. Like you should just quit your job and go and try it’.”
What did social media say?
An individual wrote, “Proud of you.” Another posted, “Congratulations on all your success, Kev!”
A third expressed, “I hope you’ve been well, brother.” A few also reacted with emoticons.