I Quit My High Paying Product Job to Bet on Myself

Yang loved building and shipping creator products at Roblox, especially seeing creators use them. He also disliked what he calls product management theater: internal documents, stakeholder alignment, and career advancement taking priority over customer-facing work. He uses a four-zone framework to distinguish work he loves and excels at from work he dislikes, and says building products and sharing what he learns are his zones of genius.

Yang wants to remain a hands-on builder rather than follow a career ladder that often leads to management and calendars full of meetings. He enjoyed mentoring PMs, but also valued sweating details across product, UX, copy, and marketing, and even checking in code with AI's help. He argues that builders in any function should keep developing their craft and seek roles that leave time to build.

After his highest-earning year, Yang concluded that more money was not worth losing control of his time. He notes that corporate decisions such as cancellations and reorganizations can limit agency, while VC-backed founders face pressure to pursue very large growth. He plans to bootstrap a small solo business, accepting lower earnings in exchange for choosing his work, collaborators, and pace; he says he waited until his business income was around his product salary before quitting.

Yang credits online friends and peer groups with giving him courage to leave his job. He describes a YouTube learning group founded by Steve, a former Amazon principal engineer who built a coaching and creator business, and a PM creator group started by Ben that includes Lenny and Alina. He recommends finding people who share your goals and will talk honestly about the difficult parts.

Yang says job titles and company names matter less in retirement than enjoying time with loved ones. While balancing his product job and creator business, he had gone months without breakfast with his children. Since quitting, he has walked his eight-year-old daughter to school, a 20-minute trip each way that has become the highlight of his day, and plans to follow through on spending more time with his family.