Why I left Corporate America to Pursue a Better World

How I came to be

My name is Sam Zuo and I wanted to tell you a little about myself.

Climbing the corporate ladder was what I was good at. Every year, I was able to get a better job that paid more. I worked for really cool technology companies in the Silicon Valley. 

I wasted no time and started my technology career right out of college.

My first job was selling software at a small technology company in San Francisco. My last job was managing a network of 300+ partners globally. I used to stay up late for partner meetings in different time zones across the globe and usually worked 12+ hour days.

Man, that was stressful! 

I noticed my close relationships started to deteriorate and my health suffered as well. Needless to say, I burned out very quickly. My ex-boss wasted no time and fired me after 6 months.

I took some time off to travel. I realized my passion was not in technology. My life looked good on papers, but it was not fulfilling.

My biggest realization came to me when I was in Yosemite National Park. I lived my life for others. My goals were distorted by what others thought of me. I cared too much about what my parents, friends, and random strangers thought of me.

The only way I knew I could get respect was the prestigious tech jobs that had defined me. Fastward a year…
I started experimenting with business ideas.
After spending 4 years climbing the corporate ladder and all of the sudden, that ladder was gone. I was really lost and didn’t know what to do with myself.

So, I decided to venture out to test different business ideas. At first, I started a gift card reselling business. It failed after 3 weeks. I realized there were too many scam artists and the margin was too low to make a living.

Then, I started my eBay drop shipping store. I made a few sales, but the income was too small to be able to live on it…

Finally, I stumbled upon the idea of starting an Airbnb business using other people’s properties. I figured, why the hell not and I had nothing to lose, so I took the last $5,000 dollars from my savings account and invested in this idea.

I was in shock how quickly this idea became a profitable business. Within the first month, I generated close to a net profit of $1,000 dollars. Then, $2,000, $4,000, and my best month yet was over $12,000 dollars!

Now, I live a more authentic lifestyle because I get to wake up and create my today. I hope you’ll get to experiment with ideas as well!

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