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the 8 "brutal truths" summarized: 1. Rushed exits can be costly: Steve left $250,000 on the table by not waiting 10 weeks for his stock to vest at Amazon. 2. Overwhelm is a real danger: Despite leaving for more freedom, Steve ended up working more hours and feeling more overwhelmed than in his corporate job. 3. Systems are crucial: Good intentions don't work, mechanisms do. Steve realized he needed better systems and boundaries to manage his time and workload effectively. 4. Continuous learning is essential: Steve fell into the "expert trap" of teaching what he already knew without continuing to learn and grow himself. 5. Chasing metrics can be misleading: Focusing on views and engagement doesn't necessarily equate to meaningful impact. 6. Rest and downtime are productive: Steve struggled with guilt over taking breaks, realizing later that creativity needs space to breathe. 7. Identity shifts are challenging: Steve had difficulty redefining himself after leaving his long-time role at Amazon. 8. Running towards is better than running away: Steve realized he spent the year reacting and escaping rather than building towards a clear vision.
This video felt supremely authentic, please don’t lose this in 2025 ❤️. You’re actually a huge inspiration on why I personally continue to create content every week. Thank you for everything you do. I hope you and the family have a very merry Christmas 🎄 ❤
250k is definition of golden handcuffs. To your viewers its a lot of $$ but to your career earnings, its not much.. esp youll need to work another grueling 2+ months, then after "just" another few months until more money. never ends, golden handcuffs.
Um, no -- Giving up $250k in exchange for 10 wks of "freedom" was short-sighted. Steve is NOT a stupid person, but it WAS a stupid decision and a mistake I think he doesn't want others to make.
Plain and simple this was a stupid decision. It’s not about the $250k, it’s about how much the $250k could turn into and give you more freedom after you give them 2 more months. $250k invested in the stock market for another 10 years is a shit ton of money. Even post-tax. Focus on wealth creation to do things you enjoy most in life, sacrifice.
Your day to day life sounds like my academic life style. Saying yes to almost everything, started many, and completed none… both have lots of freedom and can easily get lost. Thank you for the great video.
A big part of the gap you noticed in our industry is just due to the math of growth: if it takes 5-10 years to mint a true senior engineer and 10-20 years to mint a true principal engineer and the number of SWEs grows 50% each year (numbers completely made up but close enough for this level of analysis) then lack of technical leadership/mentoring is going to continue to be an issue. Thanks for trying to make it better. Your take toward the end there really resonated with me: I always try to be the kind of mentor to people I wish I'd had when I was coming up.
Hi Steve, you seem like a really bright and metered person. Everyone learns cyclically and revisits patterns in order to grow. Kudos for being able to call it out and help others learn. Your experience is humble and helpful. Direct feedback is empirical, however there are likely many silent viewers that find this content useful. When it stops being consistently fun, something needs a shift. I've been here as well and keep a steady mental affirmation "Remember why you started..."
From a Vietnamese fellow in Tech, thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. There is a Việt proverb that failures are the mother of success. How true that is would vary from person to person. But seeing how you talked about mistakes and faced them head on, your chance of finding success is on the high side. When I need to rest my mind, playing my favorite sport (badminton) works really well for me.
There is a catch 22 at play here. People not burning out at their job are the most qualified to teach others for example through YT. But they are less likely to do so because they do not need to cultivate an exit plan. People burning out at work are more likely to want to grow an audience on YT so they can escape, but are they the ones you want to listen to? This has happened with teachers also. One was setting the bar so high I was thinking how do you keep this up? Of course he quit in order to "help other teachers succeed". His audience dropped of soon after...
Like the person you mentioned in the video I've rewatched your videos a lot. The storytelling ones in particular are really helping me with behavioral questions. I write the answers out and then go over your video to make sure I hit the points in a good way. The content in the world is largely made by people much less experienced than you-- hearing how to talk to other professionals from someone at your level is the kind of gold that's normally behind closed doors only. Thank you for being open about things you wished you had done differently too, I've been there. Moved too fast, missed out on certain things. You live, you learn, you move on. But it's nice to hear even after all your experience everyone can make mistakes sometimes. It's a good reminder that failure is just part of the road to success. I'm both super proud of you and super thankful for all of the resources you've made. The way you've condensed your experience for us all will no doubt help me for the rest of my career and life. Thanks Steve and Happy Holidays!
Here's my advice for 2025, Steve: TRULY see your mistakes as learning opportunities, and spend no longer than necessary reflecting on them to get this benefit. This video seems like the outcome of exactly that, lessons learned summarized and broadcasted to your audience. I'm far from being as experienced as you, but I sure know the feeling of spiraling on my failures and mistakes, so I don't want to see your light being dimmed by such wasteful thoughts. I decided to become a mentor because of your videos 2y ago, and you're as real as it gets in youtube. Keep the grind and thanks for everything you do!
I too left Amazon in the past year to do my own thing. Made every mistake possible. The mistakes feel more real when the cash doesn’t drop every six months. Coming out on the other side feels better than ever.
Thank you Steve. You finally get the point that not everything great has to get tied back to Amazon. Jeez, I used to fast-forward almost every video which goes off at the "at Amazon one time ...."
I appreciate your candor in talking about your mistakes. Leaving over $250k on the table by not waiting 10 weeks is staggering to me. That’s an incredible amount of money and a short period of time. Hindsight being 20/20, what options were open to you? You mentioned dealing with anxiety, but were there other ways to deal with it in the short term? Did you have any PTO that you could’ve burned instead, etc?
RSU (stock award) vests every 3 months or 12 weeks. 10 weeks means Steve left 2 weeks after his last award. You’re “always leaving money on the table” with FAANG. That’s how they retain people, but he left close to the best time.
@jamesshen401 thanks for that information! I didn’t know that’s how it worked-I’ve never worked a job with RSUs. The way Steve framed it, I assumed it was a milestone vest and he walked away with nothing but his salary.
Great video Steve. Love how you're being vulnerable with your audience. Glad that this video isn't just abt work stuff. Yes we should try to grow our careers but there's more to life than your job and you are in control of your identity. One big lesson in college was that any major life step, you can rebrand yourself to who you want to be. Your identity isnt 100% set in stone
Steve, thanks again for such a great channel. I’m so glad I found you on here, it’s been great to learn from your experiences as I grow as a software engineer.
Old Book... but still worth a read is: "Before You Quit your Job" by Robert Kiyosaki - It's basically 10 Things you should do before you yolo your job and go solo.
8:50 I usually just target the thing on my list I find most irritating and annoying (but necessary) to do. Once it's done everything else on the list is SO much easier comparatively.
Incredibly insightful! I plan to incorporate many of these insights into my own life because some of them resonated with me. I really want to see this kind of reflective video at the end of 2025 🙂
Only logged in to comment. 14 YoE. Too many people now are so tied into this industry to make money and their sole personality is what they do or where they work at. This is specially for the younger kids. Great you work at fang but what do you like to do and how are you as a person. Thanks for putting that advice in because it seems lately all people care about is comp.
Please add timestamps next time. It would help most of us who just want to know the TL;DR instead of watching the whole 25 min video which mostly contains fluff.
Doing the right thing, at the right moments, according to your principles, is hard. Eishowermatrix or the adapted version of Stephen Covey helped me a lot.
Bro you should have never listened cared for positive or negative comments. No one knows your situation better than you so the judgements made by commentors should mean nothing. But I know it is hard to see genuine ones and the ones are just saying whatever they want
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Check out the free template from Hubspot: clickhubspot.com/0ncq
🚀 Get promoted in 2025 by taking my FREE 5-Day Promotion Accelerator Challenge: geni.us/9P7CAM
💥 Continue the conversation on my Discord server with like-minded ambitious tech professionals. #accountability is *chef's kiss* and #wins is 🔥 - discord.gg/HFVMbQgRJJ
📈Transform your tech career with my free weekly newsletter - alifeengineered.substack.com/
the 8 "brutal truths" summarized:
1. Rushed exits can be costly: Steve left $250,000 on the table by not waiting 10 weeks for his stock to vest at Amazon.
2. Overwhelm is a real danger: Despite leaving for more freedom, Steve ended up working more hours and feeling more overwhelmed than in his corporate job.
3. Systems are crucial: Good intentions don't work, mechanisms do. Steve realized he needed better systems and boundaries to manage his time and workload effectively.
4. Continuous learning is essential: Steve fell into the "expert trap" of teaching what he already knew without continuing to learn and grow himself.
5. Chasing metrics can be misleading: Focusing on views and engagement doesn't necessarily equate to meaningful impact.
6. Rest and downtime are productive: Steve struggled with guilt over taking breaks, realizing later that creativity needs space to breathe.
7. Identity shifts are challenging: Steve had difficulty redefining himself after leaving his long-time role at Amazon.
8. Running towards is better than running away: Steve realized he spent the year reacting and escaping rather than building towards a clear vision.
This video felt supremely authentic, please don’t lose this in 2025 ❤️. You’re actually a huge inspiration on why I personally continue to create content every week. Thank you for everything you do. I hope you and the family have a very merry Christmas 🎄 ❤
250k is definition of golden handcuffs. To your viewers its a lot of $$ but to your career earnings, its not much.. esp youll need to work another grueling 2+ months, then after "just" another few months until more money. never ends, golden handcuffs.
Also is that money after tax or before? Doesn't sound like a decision I would regret (if I was in that salary range) either way.
no it ain’t bro it’s a drop in the bucket for a ~20yr amazonian so it barely registered on his radar
Um, no -- Giving up $250k in exchange for 10 wks of "freedom" was short-sighted. Steve is NOT a stupid person, but it WAS a stupid decision and a mistake I think he doesn't want others to make.
Plain and simple this was a stupid decision. It’s not about the $250k, it’s about how much the $250k could turn into and give you more freedom after you give them 2 more months. $250k invested in the stock market for another 10 years is a shit ton of money. Even post-tax. Focus on wealth creation to do things you enjoy most in life, sacrifice.
You got me. I really thought your profile picture was a hair on my screen.
Your day to day life sounds like my academic life style. Saying yes to almost everything, started many, and completed none… both have lots of freedom and can easily get lost. Thank you for the great video.
A big part of the gap you noticed in our industry is just due to the math of growth: if it takes 5-10 years to mint a true senior engineer and 10-20 years to mint a true principal engineer and the number of SWEs grows 50% each year (numbers completely made up but close enough for this level of analysis) then lack of technical leadership/mentoring is going to continue to be an issue. Thanks for trying to make it better. Your take toward the end there really resonated with me: I always try to be the kind of mentor to people I wish I'd had when I was coming up.
Incredibly brave and transparent of you to share this .. good luck to you on the next amazing step of your journey !
Hi Steve, you seem like a really bright and metered person. Everyone learns cyclically and revisits patterns in order to grow. Kudos for being able to call it out and help others learn. Your experience is humble and helpful. Direct feedback is empirical, however there are likely many silent viewers that find this content useful. When it stops being consistently fun, something needs a shift. I've been here as well and keep a steady mental affirmation "Remember why you started..."
Wow, this video is a goldmine for anyone (like me) thinking to escape.
From a Vietnamese fellow in Tech, thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. There is a Việt proverb that failures are the mother of success. How true that is would vary from person to person. But seeing how you talked about mistakes and faced them head on, your chance of finding success is on the high side. When I need to rest my mind, playing my favorite sport (badminton) works really well for me.
There is a catch 22 at play here. People not burning out at their job are the most qualified to teach others for example through YT. But they are less likely to do so because they do not need to cultivate an exit plan. People burning out at work are more likely to want to grow an audience on YT so they can escape, but are they the ones you want to listen to? This has happened with teachers also. One was setting the bar so high I was thinking how do you keep this up? Of course he quit in order to "help other teachers succeed". His audience dropped of soon after...
Like the person you mentioned in the video I've rewatched your videos a lot. The storytelling ones in particular are really helping me with behavioral questions. I write the answers out and then go over your video to make sure I hit the points in a good way. The content in the world is largely made by people much less experienced than you-- hearing how to talk to other professionals from someone at your level is the kind of gold that's normally behind closed doors only. Thank you for being open about things you wished you had done differently too, I've been there. Moved too fast, missed out on certain things. You live, you learn, you move on. But it's nice to hear even after all your experience everyone can make mistakes sometimes. It's a good reminder that failure is just part of the road to success. I'm both super proud of you and super thankful for all of the resources you've made. The way you've condensed your experience for us all will no doubt help me for the rest of my career and life. Thanks Steve and Happy Holidays!
Here's my advice for 2025, Steve: TRULY see your mistakes as learning opportunities, and spend no longer than necessary reflecting on them to get this benefit. This video seems like the outcome of exactly that, lessons learned summarized and broadcasted to your audience.
I'm far from being as experienced as you, but I sure know the feeling of spiraling on my failures and mistakes, so I don't want to see your light being dimmed by such wasteful thoughts.
I decided to become a mentor because of your videos 2y ago, and you're as real as it gets in youtube. Keep the grind and thanks for everything you do!
Your channel is a gem, Steve. Keep going and never stop inspiring other engineers!
i like your authenticity and self awareness
All the points are spot on! I wish I watched this before I left my last job...
I too left Amazon in the past year to do my own thing. Made every mistake possible. The mistakes feel more real when the cash doesn’t drop every six months. Coming out on the other side feels better than ever.
Thank you Steve. You finally get the point that not everything great has to get tied back to Amazon. Jeez, I used to fast-forward almost every video which goes off at the "at Amazon one time ...."
You're a big inspiration for me in tech and as an engineer love to see your content Steve!
I appreciate your candor in talking about your mistakes.
Leaving over $250k on the table by not waiting 10 weeks is staggering to me. That’s an incredible amount of money and a short period of time.
Hindsight being 20/20, what options were open to you? You mentioned dealing with anxiety, but were there other ways to deal with it in the short term? Did you have any PTO that you could’ve burned instead, etc?
RSU (stock award) vests every 3 months or 12 weeks. 10 weeks means Steve left 2 weeks after his last award. You’re “always leaving money on the table” with FAANG. That’s how they retain people, but he left close to the best time.
@jamesshen401 thanks for that information! I didn’t know that’s how it worked-I’ve never worked a job with RSUs. The way Steve framed it, I assumed it was a milestone vest and he walked away with nothing but his salary.
Great video Steve. Love how you're being vulnerable with your audience. Glad that this video isn't just abt work stuff. Yes we should try to grow our careers but there's more to life than your job and you are in control of your identity.
One big lesson in college was that any major life step, you can rebrand yourself to who you want to be. Your identity isnt 100% set in stone
such an insightful video! thank you. keep up the great work man. you're doing a really great job with the value of the content in these videos!
Steve, thanks again for such a great channel. I’m so glad I found you on here, it’s been great to learn from your experiences as I grow as a software engineer.
This hits home a lot, great work! I am about a year behind you on a similar journey and amen to everything you said here
As a senior dev wanting to get more involved creating content, this is very valuable information, thank you 😊
Old Book... but still worth a read is: "Before You Quit your Job" by Robert Kiyosaki - It's basically 10 Things you should do before you yolo your job and go solo.
Gracias for keeping it humble! Very valuable lessons from the mistake and common pitfalls we keep going
Hi Steve, I really appreciate your perfessional work and positive attitude. Helped me a lot. Thank you!
Love the videos, I tend to listen to it when working or walking. Thank you for making these high quality videos.
8:50 I usually just target the thing on my list I find most irritating and annoying (but necessary) to do. Once it's done everything else on the list is SO much easier comparatively.
I did the same leaving a job, a few days later and I would have vested another few $10ks. Somehow easy to forget when lots of other stuff is going on
Incredibly insightful! I plan to incorporate many of these insights into my own life because some of them resonated with me. I really want to see this kind of reflective video at the end of 2025 🙂
Happy new year Steve! I appreciate your excellent content and channel.
Thank you for this video!
Thank you for this fantastic video. I, too, feel burn out and feeling to leave, and this video helps me put things into perspective.
Excellent video. Thank you! You are making a change!
Even though it's targeted towards career, some of these points really feel like they extend to my life haha. Thank you!
Great, thank you for creating this viode. It was really good
Watch him saying the same thing I was a Principle Engineer at Amazon... Just like a broken record. LMAO
very authentic. glad I watched this video.
Te quiero mucho tío Steve
Great content! Happy Holidays 🎊
Thank you for your knowledge sharing, happy holidays
you are the star!
"feeling guilty about resting", wow. that's my life as well.
Would love to see a video about how you create videos, a behind the scenes look
I’m just watching this so I don’t quit big tech anytime soon. I gotta put my 18 years in first. 🤣
If Dave had better audio this would be perfect
Only logged in to comment. 14 YoE. Too many people now are so tied into this industry to make money and their sole personality is what they do or where they work at. This is specially for the younger kids. Great you work at fang but what do you like to do and how are you as a person. Thanks for putting that advice in because it seems lately all people care about is comp.
I’m confused. Vests are every 13 weeks. 10 weeks until the next vest sounds like “one more vest” syndrome, which is why people never leave.
Could you do a video walking thru a system design interview question and show us how a principal engineer would approach it
Please add timestamps next time. It would help most of us who just want to know the TL;DR instead of watching the whole 25 min video which mostly contains fluff.
It helps, but i think this video is not one of those. Good stories with each point was told.
just 2x speed bro
Yes high quality content.
Agree, timestamp is helpful for viewers to easily navigate to the portion they'd like to watch
Doing the right thing, at the right moments, according to your principles, is hard. Eishowermatrix or the adapted version of Stephen Covey helped me a lot.
Bro you should have never listened cared for positive or negative comments. No one knows your situation better than you so the judgements made by commentors should mean nothing. But I know it is hard to see genuine ones and the ones are just saying whatever they want
Could you take vacation till vesting?
Mistake #2 solidifies what I suspect most folks here already knew: Uncle Steve is a workaholic.
Edit: and others, not just mistake 2.
bro fumbled $250k in THIS market? Straight to jail...
Have you made more from your business than Amazon yet?
All you need is Jira
Wasn’t embracing delegation one of your advices on multiplying impact?
i thought you are originate from korean never thought of viet nam
nerd ❤
Prediction 2025-2026: colab with the Tech Lead and Joma
Thank you for this video. Top of the top.