The Courage to Break Free: Finding Purpose Beyond the Paycheck

Sold all my stuff and headed south. Again. Car? Gone. Furniture? Gone. Storage unit? Nope. I’m down to what fits in one suitcase (plus a closet in my mom’s house—shoutout moms).

A Quick Rant on Depreciation

When is purchasing a liability ever a good decision? I paid someone $6,000 to take my car off my hands—that’s right, I paid them.

They drove off with a new car and six bands, presumably bumping ‘Pac, as I miserably looked on and began rethinking all life choices.

Lesson learned: don’t buy shit that depreciates. Cars, boats, bikes, furniture—they tether you to a lifestyle you might not even want. [Unless you’re actually rich as shit—we’ll return to this later…]

And that’s the point, isn’t it? The more things you own, the more they own you.

*Dave Ramsey awakens from wet dream*

Fleeing the US

Another flight to South America, another one-way ticket cashed in. The outdoor cat knows his way back to the food bowl at home—but there’s always a chance you don’t see him again.

I’ve got no tickets, plans, or ideas of returning.

The Morningly Shit: Why I Left

Picture this: sitting at your desk, watching the clock, waiting for that morningly (yep, it’s a word, at least back in the 1800s) shit break just to scroll social media in peace.

Back at the desk, tolerating your strung out mid-life-crisis boss pinging you on Teams about spreadsheets you don’t care about, expending the lions share of your life’s energy to push agendas you don’t align with—I’m good.

Meanwhile, somewhere in history, one of your ancestors was unleashing spears on the Great Plains’ bison population.

[I’m not Native American so that is factually incorrect.]

We’ve traded survival instincts for corporate ones. I felt like a lion in a cage—stuck, defanged, and pacing (fuck it, let’s say neutered too for good measure), wondering if there’s more to life than this cycle of comfort and consumption.

Enter: Operation Freedom©

Nope, the US military isn’t about to rain down on a Middle Eastern country (it is)—this is a recalibration. Financial freedom isn’t just about having money. It’s about living on your terms.

I’d rather go broke trying to build something meaningful, and start from zero like a college kid, than sit in the cushy cell (I mean cubicle) as I rot away mentally and spiritually.

The goal is independence—not just from a job, but from the mental chains that keep us locked into cycles of mindless consumption, escapism, and settling for mediocrity.

The Human Zoo

Humans are animals. We like to differentiate ourselves from ‘animals’, but we aren’t so different. Take a dog bred to herd sheep all day and lock it in a tiny apartment, and watch your deposit disappear.

Put a bird in a cage and watch it pluck its own feathers out. Put a cat indoors, and it sharpens its claws on the sofa not to fuck with you (maybe sort of), but because there is no tree bark. I ain’t a PETA guy, but damn, I know I wouldn’t want to be a zoo animal.

I’m tryna have a mf territory.

Yet that’s exactly what we are.

No sense of adventure, exploration, awe, curiosity, purpose, passion, exhilaration, autonomy, connection, community—and as a result, numbed by social media, alcohol, porn, food, and Netflix.

Not sure why fam but I’ve actually been anxious for 7 years

Redefining Wealth: Financial Freedom

We become shackled to the bloated lifestyle we’ve created in our years of salary-earning. Who else is going to pay me six figures and afford me Italy trips and a Raptor in exchange for adding fuck all in value?

Lifestyle downgrades are hard to make. Get used to living in a $3000/month apartment, and the $1200 spot looks like poverty. It ain’t happening. The Benz leather makes the Civic cloth hurt to sit on. Good luck trading it in.

But can your Benz crawl up a mountain, store a hoarder’s amount of shit, and provide 150 years of reliability?

The Mindset Shift

The other day, my mom was perplexed as to how I was understanding the large Cuban man’s lightning fast Spanish. Half of the words were slang as he entirely omitted a quarter of the alphabet. (My Latinos will understand the difficulty here).

It’s the same way I learned countless skills like martial arts, motorcycling, and dance:

1. Decide I want it.
2. Learn how to learn.
3. Copy people who’ve already done it.
4. Block out the noise from people who haven’t.

So why couldn’t this approach be applied to generating wealth?

Negative Money Beliefs

Money’s tricky. Unlike learning a language, it comes with a lot of baggage—societal beliefs, family expectations, and our own limiting ideas about what we “deserve.” Ever notice how you seem to sabotage yourself whenever you start earning more than you think you’re worth? That’s your internal thermostat pulling you back to its set point.

To break out, you have to rewrite those stories. Success doesn’t make you greedy or bad—it gives you the freedom to live authentically and contribute to the world on your terms. And once truly successful, you can truly afford the AMG and the Camelback sofa, without being shackled to them.

The Seven Baby Mamas

I know I’m privileged and have unique circumstances. I could have chosen to have seven different mothers of my children and be burdened with two mortgages, or I could still be trying to relive the glory days of college by getting blackout drunk at the local bars in my hometown (and believe me, I’ve been there—no judgment).

But is my situation really that unique? There is a whole generation of young, unmarried, childless professionals out there dealing with similar challenges and frustrations.

Having a child or a house doesn’t necessarily stop you from pursuing your dreams—those are just self-imposed limitations. But it does make things more difficult. (Inspired by Scott Galloway’s No Mercy / No Malice.)

So, the real question isn’t whether I’m crazy for walking away from a “good” job. The question is, are you crazy for staying in one?

Final Thoughts

Is it scary? Definitely. Just like the turbulence I’m currently experiencing at 35,000 feet above the Gulf of Mexico.

But it’s worth it. I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on these questions:

Do you feel trapped? If so, what is holding you back (limitations, obligations, bosses, negative thoughts, friends, habits, bills, etc.)?
Are you truly fulfilled and aligned with your purpose in your career? This requires a clear definition of your purpose. If yes, great, carry on. If not…
What is your Operation Freedom© plan?
What are you tolerating in your life that you know is hindering your progress?

Thank you for reading.