Week 2 After Google. Here's the unfiltered scoreboard.
Hey — Joe here.
Two weeks ago I walked out of Google.
You're one of the first 9 people who signed up to follow this journey, so you get the version I won't post publicly: the real numbers, the real doubts, and the actual strategy behind the trades.
Here's week 1–2, unfiltered.
The scoreboard
- 1 coaching client signed. He's an ex-colleague, so there's already high trust in my character. He reached out after seeing my LinkedIn post, we had a coffee chat, I presented my offer, and he saw exactly how he'd benefit. So he paid.
This is exactly what I learned when I started my coaching business in Jan 2026:
do things that don't scale, and talk to potential customers 1-1.
Starting a business doesn't have to be complicated. Make an offer, reach out to friends first, present it, secure a client — or keep improving the offer until someone says yes.
I'll keep doing this until I'm time- or resource-constrained. For now, it grows organically.
- 1 community call with my coachees. We went deep on my main hedging strategy — how I protect my concentrated GOOG position without selling out of it. Full breakdown in this post: How I Hedged $500K GOOG Position (Almost) for Free with Options
- 1 client success interview recorded. My first client started trading stock options in Feb 2026 and just hit a record month: $4,850 in June. But the numbers aren't the real story. The real story is that after quitting corporate, he doesn't have to watch his savings drain. His long-term index investing stays untouched while he builds his own coaching business.
- App prototype built, AI connected. It now handles assistive conversations and trade recommendations. It's rough, it's early — and that's exactly when feedback matters most. More below.
- 12 trades placed, most profitable. Full month-end report with every position, premium collected, and what I got wrong coming in 2 weeks. You'll see it before anyone else.
- Started posting publicly — @joezhang.co on IG. YouTube is next.
- Doubt counter: 17. As in, 17 separate moments of "why the hell did I quit Google?" The self-doubt is real, but hiding it doesn't help a bit. So I'm acknowledging it, accepting it, and continuing to chart the path I chose.
What 2 weeks actually taught me
- It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm giving myself permission to build intentionally instead of grabbing the first thing that pays.
The runway math: I brought in $52k in H1 2026 from trading and coaching (full report next week). That average monthly non-work income already covers the majority of our household expenses. That's my financial confidence — with the downside taken care of, everything from here is upside.
- It's lonely. The fix isn't willpower — it's structure. I've set up regular co-working sessions with friends on the same builder path. If you're building something solo: one recurring calendar block with one other builder beats any productivity app.
- Noise is the default. Social media rewards consuming, not creating. My rule now: create before I consume, every day.
- Always be shipping. The AI-tools rabbit hole is real. I keep reminding myself: nothing beats putting the product in front of real users. Shipping is the north star; everything else is procrastination with better branding.
- What worked at Google won't necessarily work here. Big-company instincts — polish first, ship later — are exactly backwards for a solo builder. Staying experimental matters more than being right.
- Knowledge is cheap. Action drives outcomes. You already know enough to start. So did I. The gap was never information.
Want early access to the app?
I'm opening a small beta group for the trading tool. If you have some trading experience and want to shape what this becomes, just reply to this email — subscribers get first slots before I open it up anywhere else.
Next week
- Kick off the beta testing group
- Full H1 non-corporate income report — and where I'm doubling down
- Keep the daily IG posting streak alive (1 post every day this week so far)
Talk soon, Joe
P.S. You're subscriber #5 of 9. (Thank you!) When this list is 5,000, you can say you were here when the doubt counter was still at 17. Forward this to one friend who's thinking about betting on themselves.