It started with a bloodshot Zoom call…
This is a proud moment for me.
I wrote a book.
Now, hold on—maybe not a book book (the voice of insecurities are screaming loud now). But a book.
It took a crises to put this together. That crises—deep career frustration—is what cracked open my entrepreneurial journey, and by extension, this newsletter.
How I started writing a book.
This book started being written in May, 2025. It began the way most great things do—in the mundane.
It was a Friday night. I had been fired earlier that day, and by evening, I was indulging myself in my happiest thing in the world to do—journaling.
I wrote about the surreal nature of that final Zoom call. How I walked in suspecting nothing, yet somehow knowing everything. I wrote about my manager’s eyes—they were bloodshot as she broke the news.
I closed the notebook and went to bed, simply contented to have gotten the words out of my head.
Days later, I was flipping through that journal and stumbled back onto that passage. It stopped me. I saw tenderness, humor, and a kind of meaning I hadn’t realized I’d captured in the heat of the moment.
“Wow,” I thought. “This shouldn’t be kept to myself.”
That singular passage demanded more. To make sense of it, I had to go backward to set the stage, and then forward to complete the story.
It started as Medium post. And then another. And then another…
Suddenly, I felt—this is too good for Medium. This needs permanence.
And then ChatGPT made a simple suggestion that took things to a whole new level. I’ll write about that tomorrow. I’ll tell you about perfectionism, and what it taught me in the publishing journey. I’ll tell you why writing a book matters at all. How this independently released 14-page pdf is a very big deal.
For today, I just want you to know accidentally-born project is finally here.
It’s called ListenIn: A Personal Odyssey on Career Alignment.
It’s a short read, but a raw one. It’s the story of navigating a career crisis when you’re “highly gifted” but feel “criminally under-utilized.” It’s about the cost of performing a version of yourself that doesn’t exist, and the clarity that comes when you finally stop.
If you’ve ever felt like a powerful engine running in the wrong gear, I hope this unlocks something in you.
[cta] Read the Full Odyssey Here [/cta]
Till we talk again,
Cheers to growth and doing new things.
Warmly,
Taiwo.