[ALittleLight]

I checked my stock rewards balance one day, realized I didn't need to work anymore, and then quit. It's worked well so far.

Your story reminds me of a Peter Thiel anecdote on "Leaving Alcatraz." [1] The gist of the story is Peter Thiel is living his "tracked" life. He goes to an elite school, studies law, joins an elite law firm... And discovers he doesn't like it, so he quits. He's a couple months in. When he's quitting his colleague tells him "It's nice to know it is possible to escape Alcatraz." But, of course, it's possible for anyone to "escape" the doors aren't locked and leaving is always allowed. You are made a prisoner to the status quo by your own fear of change.

1 - (I think this is the right clip but my speakers are currently not working) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in2ktnsfwkw

[antongribok]

At the very end of the clip he says: "psychologically this was hard to do, because so much of their identity gets wrapped up in these educational badges...".

This resonated with me, but because of an opposite experience, I didn't go to a good school, and for a long time had imposter syndrome any time I started a new job. It took many years to internally get over that.