Hi {{first_name}},

They fired me on a Wednesday afternoon.

Well, me, my wife Duong, and my mates Ren and Alex. All gone without warning or even a meeting. 

The company accused us of trying to poach their clients and writers. 

Completely wrong, by the way. I'd been working as Senior Project Manager for Captain Words, doing 60-hour weeks for $2,500 a month, and I was looking for supplementary content writing work to actually make ends meet.

Turns out they were monitoring our screens. Saw the conversations. Made assumptions. Pulled the trigger.

I remember sitting there thinking, "Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant."

My wife was pregnant. We'd just moved to Da Nang. I had no backup plan, no savings buffer, no carefully constructed exit strategy. 

Just a sudden, urgent need to figure out how to make money immediately.

By Thursday morning, I was on the phone with my brother's mate Richard.

He had a cannabis seed business that needed content. Lots of it. I told him I had a team of writers who could handle his SEO and content needs. Which was technically true - I did have a team. They just didn't work for me yet because I didn't have a business yet.

Richard asked about rates. I told him my writers charged three times what they actually made at Captain Words. He said that sounded affordable.

That's when I realised I could actually do this.

I called every writer I'd worked with. Offered to triple their salaries immediately if they'd jump ship with me. 

Ren and Alex were already in - they'd been fired too. Within 24 hours, Grassroots Content existed.

I didn't plan it. There was no market research, no business plan, no careful validation. I got sacked on Wednesday and needed to eat on Friday.

That business went on to make $10-15k profit monthly. Plus another $5-8k for my management. For years.

My best business opportunity came from forced circumstances, not careful planning.

I see coaches doing the opposite. 

Building perfect websites before they've had a single sales call. 

Writing entire course curriculums before they've validated that anyone wants it. Spending months "getting ready" to launch.

Meanwhile, the coaches making money are often the ones who got desperate enough to just start. 

They didn't wait for the perfect moment. They got thrown in the deep end and figured out how to swim on the way down.

The planning advice isn't wrong. It's just that planning can become a way to avoid the scary part - actually putting yourself out there and seeing if anyone cares.

Getting fired was the best thing Captain Words ever did for me. It removed the option of endless preparation.

If I'd left on my own terms, I'd probably still be planning the perfect exit, the perfect business, the perfect everything. 

Instead, I got shoved out the door and had to build something immediately.

Turns out that's the best business plan there is: having no choice but to make it work.

If you've been planning your next move longer than feels comfortable, hit reply. 

I'm genuinely curious what you're waiting for - sometimes talking it through helps you realise whether it's strategic or just scary.

Jack