Ever wanted to quit being a corporate tech employee and work for yourself, but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t take the leap? Here’s what I wish someone had told me sooner: if you’re capable and experienced but still frozen, it’s usually not your skills holding you back—it’s fear. And in my case, the thing that finally gave me the courage to move forward when nothing else did wasn’t another self-help book or another business strategy. It was the Bible.
I know how many experienced developers are living in that weird in-between space. Done with corporate, drawn to self-employment, but still stuck. In this article, I’m going to walk you through four really seductive lies the tech industry sells us. Lies that keep us trapped in corporate jobs way past the time we should be building our own path. And what scripture showed me about moving forward even when there’s no clear way to go.
Why is it so hard to quit corporate tech and work for yourself?
The simplest answer is that corporate tech trains you to outsource your courage: you get comfort on a schedule, direction from a boss, and a paycheck every couple weeks like clockwork. So the moment you consider working for yourself, your fear convinces you it’s irresponsible. But I know it’s not always that simple in real life, because it wasn’t for me.
I knew I was done working for the man for 15 years before I actually did it. And it wasn’t because I was lazy or scared of responsibility. I had a wife, three kids, and a mortgage. All I really knew was the security of a desk job.
But then eight years ago, my life completely exploded.
On the outside, things looked just great. At work, I kept hearing things like, “You’re the best consultant I’ve ever worked with.” But at home, everything was falling apart. I was burned out. I was addicted to distraction. And instead of leading my life, I was trying to escape it.
In the middle of that mess, I finally had to face something I’d avoided my entire career. It wasn’t my skills that were holding me back. It wasn’t even a lack of opportunity. It was fear.
But I got through it. Now I’ve been self-employed in tech for nearly a decade. I’ve coached over 140 developers who were also stuck in the same place I was—capable and experienced, but frozen. There’s one thing though that I don’t always get a chance to tell them: I read all the self-help books, I absorbed all the business advice I could find, but in the end there was one book that gave me courage when nothing else did. The Bible.
And a lot of what I teach inside the Consulting Offer Workshop exists because I don’t want you to wait for a life explosion to finally deal with the fear.
Can saving money eliminate the risk of going solo?
No—saving money can reduce some pressure, but it can’t prevent disaster, and believing it can is one of the most seductive traps. I don’t say that to scare you. I say it to free you, because you can’t build a path to self-employment if you’re trying to eliminate uncertainty first.
The American dream here in the United States tells us this: if you work hard enough and be responsible with your money, you will become successful. But success means different things to different people. When I was an employee, it seemed like almost everything I did was about making money. Since I was providing for five people, some of that was just being responsible.
But I also believed something deeper: with enough money, I would never need anyone’s help.
That lie fell completely apart when I resigned eight years ago. I couldn’t work because I developed chronic sleep problems. I did sleep studies, followed all the sleep hygiene, changed my nutrition, and got mental help even. But I couldn’t heal fast enough! In just two years, I spent all my savings, my stocks, and fell behind on my mortgage. All those years I played it “safe” by being an employee and saving diligently, went completely out the window.
It was in Luke 12 where I found my mistake. Jesus often teaches in parables—short stories with deeper meaning. Here’s what it says:
A rich man’s land was very productive.
He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops?
I will do this,’ he said.
I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there.
Then I’ll say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years.
Take it easy; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”
But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you.
And the things you’ve prepared—whose will they be?
That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
Luke 12 16-21 CSB
Jesus’ point is brutal and simple: storing up treasure for yourself isn’t the same thing as being secure.
The point of this story (at least when talking about self-employment) is this: if you’re thinking that by focusing on saving money you can prevent disasters, you’re wrong. Even if you don’t believe in God, you know you can’t control the future.
I don’t say this to scare you. I say it to free you! Because if you want to work for yourself, you have to take action in the face of risk.
When I help developers start working for themselves, I do try to use strategies with the least risk possible. But as Jesus shared in this story, coasting in comfort mode is dangerous. To work for yourself, you’re opening yourself up to potential risks, but you’re also stepping into work that makes a bigger impact on the companies you serve. And when you make a bigger impact on the business of the companies you serve, you stay relevant and continue to produce income over your career.
That’s one of the reasons the Consulting Offer Workshop is built around creating a premium offer tied to business outcomes. Because it’s not just about “quitting,” it’s about becoming the kind of person who can navigate risk with clarity.
How do I stop catastrophizing about self-employment?
You stop trying to build a perfect plan, and you start practicing imperfect action. Because action is what creates real clarity. Planning matters, but planning is not the same thing as control. And the tech brain (especially the experienced tech brain) loves to confuse the two.
You probably know about the part of our brains called the amygdala. It’s a small almond-shaped structure that helps us detect threats. If you’ve ever been on a scrum team, you’ve probably seen the amygdala in action. Project managers think if they can identify every possible problem, they can plan for it.
But if you’ve been working in tech for a while, you’ve seen how software projects never go according to plan.
When I first started working for myself, I fell into the same trap. Every time I thought about what to do, my brain kicked into threat detection mode. It came up with all kinds of problems that might occur, and it stopped me from doing anything.
There’s a term for this: catastrophizing.
Catastrophizing is when your mind comes up with the worst-case scenario for something you’re considering doing. And if you’ve been in corporate for years, it’s easy to confuse “being thorough” with being frozen. You tell yourself you’re being responsible. But what’s really happening is fear is holding the steering wheel.
A scripture that helped me move past this is James 4. James, who was the brother of Jesus, says this:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city—
and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.
Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be!
For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
James 4 13-16 CSB
You may not believe in evil or in God—but hopefully you can see the point James is making here. It’s prideful and arrogant to do something thinking we can guarantee the outcome.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t plan. I’m saying you can’t create a perfect plan.
One of my favorite quotes about this is from Dwight D. Eisenhower. When referring to military strategy, he said:
“Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
When it comes to working for yourself, you’ve got to hold two things equally true:
- If you don’t do any planning, you really only have yourself to blame.
- But if you do plan and things don’t go according to plan, remember this: sure, sometimes it is your fault. But just as often, it can just be how the cards fell.
Instead, look at it as an opportunity for learning.
I’ve had to practice this every single day. I create a plan, I know it isn’t perfect, and then I act on it in good faith. If I learn I had holes in the plan, I analyze what happened and I adjust.
You’re going to need to do the same if you want to work for yourself. Because strategy is not what makes your career change. Taking action is.
Own your tech career by crafting a premium consulting offer in 4 evenings that’s worth $300+/hr
And this is exactly why, inside the Consulting Offer Workshop, we don’t just talk about “ideas.” We force clarity by building something tangible—an offer you can actually test in the real world.
What does the Bible teach about worry, comfort, and provision?
It teaches that worry can imprison you, comfort can become a master, and provision doesn’t work the way your fear tells you it does. The hardest part is admitting how much of your life has been driven by trying to secure a lifestyle instead of trying to live with purpose.
When I first started making good money in my 20s I thought, “Well, I must have done something right!” And the more money I made, the more it started feeding my ego. So when I lost it all eight years ago, I came to the same conclusion in reverse: I figured it was all my fault, and I could have prevented the disaster if I made better decisions.
Now don’t get me wrong—I definitely did some stupid things to get there. I smoked weed to deal with stress for 20 years. I played video games when I didn’t want to face my frustration with work. I avoided my wife and kids when I felt guilty about being in a bad mood all the time.
That landed me in a recovery program at a church. It’s kind of like Alcoholics Anonymous, but for anyone with serious problems. The first thing they have you do is admit your life has become unmanageable.
I had tried everything I could do to fix my health, my life, and my career. When I finally admitted it just wasn’t working, that was when I started to heal. I gave my life to Jesus Christ and promised I’d try to be a better person.
And then something really surprising happened.
When I looked back over my life, I realized how many good things happened despite my bad decisions. I made mistakes at work, but somehow still kept my job. I failed to teach my kids important lessons, but they learned them anyway later. I didn’t get some of the career opportunities I wanted, but I actually ended up getting better ones in the long run.
I started going to church around this time, and a friend told me to read something every day. It was another part of Luke 12 where Jesus is speaking in a parable again:
Then he said to his disciples,
“Therefore I tell you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat; or about the body, what you will wear.
For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: They don’t sow or reap; they don’t have a storeroom or a barn; yet God feeds them.
Aren’t you worth much more than the birds?
Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying?
If then you’re not able to do even a little thing, why worry about the rest?
Luke 12 22-36 CSB
What Jesus was teaching me is how worrying kept me trapped in fear.
At least in the United States, I’ll probably never have to fear going hungry or not having any clothes. What I really feared was not having the lifestyle I wanted. I’d become a slave to the comfort that making a lot of money provided.
Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being comfortable or enjoying the fruit of your hard work. But when comfort keeps you trapped, that’s when addictions like I had start to take hold.
Reading that passage every day, I started to see that God was providing for me the whole time—even when I was doing things I knew were wrong. When I realized that, I saw how much he loved me. And that gave me the courage to start pursuing self-employment.
Even when I didn’t know for sure whether it would make me as much money at first, I decided to trust that God would provide the rest like he had so many other times in my life.
That mindset shift—out of fear and into trust—is also part of why I built the Consulting Offer Workshop the way I did. Not to hype you up, but to help you move with courage and structure instead of worry and chaos.
How do I choose adventure over fear when there’s no perfect time?
You accept that there will never be a perfect time, and you build the “adventure muscle” by taking real steps while you’re still scared. That’s what self-employment trains in you: not recklessness—agency.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably felt there’s more to life than working as an employee. It’s not the 1950s anymore. We can’t just pick a profession and milk it until retirement.
But when you’ve been in corporate tech jobs for years, it trains you to be comfortable. That paycheck comes in every couple weeks like clockwork. Your boss tells you what to do so you never have to direct yourself.
And that’s exactly why it feels so meaningless.
There’s no sense of adventure.
I ignored that voice deep inside that said I was made to do more until everything fell apart. But you don’t have to wait until disaster strikes like I did.
There will never be a perfect time to start working for yourself. But the great thing about self-employment is that you learn to choose adventure over fear. It’s a muscle you build, and it gets stronger the more you use it.
You choose becoming someone more, not letting a company decide how big your impact can be.
This is also where the whole “premium consultant” conversation becomes real. Because being premium isn’t just a pricing tactic—it’s an identity shift. It’s the choice to stop renting your career and start owning your direction, your leverage, and your outcomes. And that’s the exact kind of shift I’m trying to accelerate for developers inside the Consulting Offer Workshop.
What does The Bible teach about starting self-employment later in life?
It teaches that obedience and courage aren’t about starting over. They’re about carrying forward what you’ve already accumulated, and stepping into the unknown anyway. You’re not resetting to zero just because you change the way you work.
In Genesis 12, there’s a rich man named Abram. He’s got tons of money, possessions, friends, and influence. And God asks him to leave that comfort behind to pursue something greater.
The Lord said to Abram:
Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house—
to the land that I will show you.
I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated—
and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12 1-5 CSB
Notice how Abram wasn’t starting over. And when you choose to walk the path to work for yourself, you aren’t either. Every skill you’ve acquired and every lesson you’ve learned, you get to bring with you.
Abram was 75 when he made a radical decision to obey God—to step into the unknown. And I was 41 years old and broke when I decided to begin coaching developers!
Look, if you don’t think this is the right time to go solo, you could be right. I’m not saying self-employment is right for everyone. But if you’ve been frustrated for years and you spend more time escaping than living, maybe this is a wakeup call?
Faith is, by definition, hope in what we can’t yet see.
When you first got into software development, there was no guarantee you’d be successful, but you did it anyway. Imagine if you never even tried. Where would you even be today?
There’s a pastor named Rick Warren who I don’t always agree with, but there’s one thing he said that’s always stuck with me: if God showed you the entire plan for your life, you’d refuse to take a step because it would look too scary.
That has been so true for me.
God never showed me the full plan for working for myself! He just shows me the next step each day. And that’s been enough—for eight years.
And that’s the spirit I want you to bring into building an offer: not “I need certainty before I move,” but “I can take the next faithful step.” The Consulting Offer Workshop is designed to help you find that next step in a practical way. By turning your experience into a clear, testable offer instead of an abstract dream.
How does taking action in the face of uncertainty support becoming a premium consultant?
Because premium consulting isn’t built by researching. It’s built by moving, learning, and refining. You don’t become respected because your plan was flawless; you become respected because you deliver real outcomes, adjust fast, and keep going when you don’t feel ready.
I hope you feel a little better hearing that you don’t need a perfect plan. Taking action in the face of uncertainty is how you become a premium consultant.
But taking imperfect action isn’t enough by itself. You can still use a high-level plan to avoid some big pitfalls. You still have to craft a compelling offer, close the deal, deliver your services, and get paid.
That’s why, when I work with developers who want to stop being treated like task-runners and start being treated like partners, we keep coming back to the same core idea: you’re not selling “hours” or “skills.” You’re learning how to create and communicate business value in a way companies understand and are willing to pay for.
And that’s the heartbeat of what I’m building with Developer Reborn—and why the Consulting Offer Workshop exists in the first place: to help experienced software professionals map what they already know into a premium, repeatable offer they can actually take to market with courage.
Ready to own your tech career?
For most people, becoming an in-demand premium consultant is a more realistic path to self-employment than building a SaaS.
That’s why I created the Consulting Offer Workshop.
In 4 evenings you’ll craft an offer that’s unique to your career experiences, and worth $300/hr or more every time you deliver it.
Build your offer live with me, Jayme Edwards—and other software professionals in a supportive, collaborative group.
Frequently asked questions
If you’ve been frustrated for years, feel like your work has no adventure, and you’re spending more time escaping than living, that’s usually not “just a season”. It’s a signal worth paying attention to. I’m not saying self-employment is right for everyone, but if the idea won’t leave you alone and you know you’re capable, it may be less about your ability and more about fear keeping you stuck. The way forward usually isn’t quitting overnight. It’s taking the next clear step toward a real offer you can test while you still have income. That’s exactly what the Consulting Offer Workshop is designed to help with: turning what you already know into a high-value offer, so you can move forward with courage and structure instead of vague pressure.
You don’t eliminate risk by waiting. You manage it by taking action wisely. Saving money helps, but it doesn’t control the future, and trying to reach “zero risk” is one of the biggest traps that keeps experienced developers frozen. The safer path is to build leverage while you’re still employed: craft an offer tied to business outcomes, validate it with real conversations, and learn how to price and position it like a premium consultant. In the Consulting Offer Workshop, I help you map your experience to real business value and shape it into an offer you can take to market with the least-risk approach possible. But we don’t pretend certainty is required first.
The goal isn’t to stop planning. It’s to stop treating planning like control. Overthinking is often your amygdala doing threat detection and calling it “responsibility,” but it usually leads to one thing: no action. You don’t need a perfect plan to move forward. You need a workable plan and the willingness to adjust as you learn. That’s how premium consultants are formed: they act, learn, refine, and keep going even when there’s uncertainty. The Consulting Offer Workshop is built for that exact shift. So instead of staying trapped in mental loops, you walk out with a clear offer and a simple path to take the next step.