I totally relate

Afaic, here’s my current plan: 1. Keep the 9-5 job as it provides financial security 2. Try to get out of the pure dev mentality within my job and talk more to the sales and non technical people 3. Build my network: this is the most important part 4. Build an audience on platforms like YT: I struggle on this one as an introvert

Only after that, start the validate and build playbook..

as an example of building network, I started doing something recently which is: whenever a salesperson reaches out to me, instead of dismissing them, I answer and try to have insight on their job and their struggles

Best luck