Starter Story - am I about to get fired?

Read time: 1 min. 08 sec.

A few days ago, one of our Founder’s Club members confessed something to me:

“pat, i can't build in public like you. because my boss and coworkers follow me online.”

I get it. That’s a legit fear.

What would happen if your boss found out about your side project?

Well, today I have a story for you.

Let me tell you about the day my boss found out about mine 😆

It’s mid-2017.

I’d been building Starter Story for about six months.

You know the drill:

Deep work, 7-9am
Full-time job, 9am-5pm
Repeat

But one day, while sitting at my desk, I glance over at my boss’ desk…

And on his giant monitor, I see my website 🫨

(^^^ Starter Story circa 2017 – not much has changed 😆)

I can spot it from a mile away—the colors, the font, everything.

And then, a minute later, I get a Slack ping from him:

“Hey, can you talk?”

Holy sh*t… am I about to get fired?

I walk into his office, sit down, and he says:

“Pat, I saw this website you built.”

My palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy…

“Pretty cool. How’d you build it?”

… wait, what?

Turns out, he didn’t care.

He asked me a ton of questions about the site—how I built it, the tech stack, the business model.

It was actually a super interesting (and relieving) conversation.

And here’s what I realized:

Nobody cares as much as you think they do.

In fact, deep down, I think most people secretly want to start a business.

They want the freedom, the creativity, and the ownership that comes with it.

It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

And when people see you building something, they’ll probably just cheer you on.

I tell you this story so that you can get rid of the fear.

Remember: nobody cares that much.

All that matters is that you build something you are proud of.

So... I invite you to join our upcoming AI Idea Academy.

(our next sprint starts in a few days).

This is your chance to build something you 100% own.

And who knows, maybe even your boss will find it interesting 😆'

Enroll in the AI Idea Academy Now.

Let’s build,

– Pat

Disclaimer: when you work on side project, make sure the company does not own your IP. Don't work on your work laptop. And don't work on company time. Be smart about it :)

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Starter Story - am I about to get fired?

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The $160M pillow

The $160M pillow

worthless

She built a $100K/year business while having a FT job

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