People always say, especially successful people, “Get out of your comfort zone.” But no one really explains how to get out of it or how to even realize you are in one.

So I’ll tell you my story.

I’m working at a startup as a founding engineer. The company is not really a tech company, but I was hired as the technical person who takes full ownership of the product. I write code, talk to existing users, collect feedback, analyze user experience, integrate AI into the system, improve workflows, make teams more efficient, and basically do everything from design to deployment.

The interesting part is, I barely work at this startup, maybe only one or two hours a day.

Initially, for the first three months, it was very easy. I wasn’t even building much at first. It was kind of a remote job. Once a week, I would go to the founder’s office, and we would have some small talks, that’s it. I would understand everything and then take ownership from there. I planned everything, created the Jira boards, shared updates with him, and gave him a complete picture of what I was doing and the progress I made.

At the same time, during those three months, I was also building one product on the side.

After three months, he asked me to come to the office. I told him, “I’m not an office person. I don’t like working 9 to 5, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll be productive during fixed hours.” But he insisted and said he was losing context about what we were working on.

So I agreed.

The moment I started going to the office, I realized something. He still barely talked to me. I was still doing exactly what I used to do before, giving suggestions, improving systems, building things, and solving problems.

But I realized this was not my place.

I hated sitting inside those four walls, on that small chair, staring at a small window through my laptop screen. I genuinely hated my life there.

So naturally, I just wanted to escape.

And because of that, I started building my own stuff even more aggressively.

The moment he gives me a task, my brain immediately switches on like a ticking time bomb. I finish the task as fast as possible, and then instantly go back to building my own things.

You won’t believe this, within one week, I shipped two products.

Yesterday alone, within three hours, I created a Chrome extension, built the landing page, generated all the images, created the extension, and published everything. I used AI heavily throughout the process.

And the strange thing is, even after doing all this, I still feel like I can do more.

That’s when I realized something important:

I was no longer in my comfort zone.

I was in a situation I hated so much that my mind was constantly trying to escape it. And that pressure made me insanely productive.

Now I’m building my own products, my own startups, and my own future.

So far, I’ve built around eight products or startups in my life. In just the last two months, I shipped four products, and I haven’t even started marketing them properly yet.

This time, while building, I’m learning new things every single day. I know I have a lot of free time right now, and I think that’s my biggest leverage.

And honestly, I think this is one of the greatest realizations I’ve ever had.