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Five years ago I made the scariest decision of my life. Here's the full story.

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⌚ TIMESTAMPS

00:27 – Six figures and still unhappy

03:09 – The day I quit

10:45 – The Bloomberg article

17:15 – Starting over from scratch

19:42 – Five years later

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And, um, I'm gonna be resigning from

ExxonMobil That was me quitting my

2

six-figure data science job almost

five years ago to do something

3

ridiculously stupid, and it was almost

the worst decision I ever made in my

4

entire life, and somehow it's ended

up being the best thing I ever did.

5

Today, I'll tell you the full story

that I've waited to tell five years

6

on exactly what happened, why I did

it, and was it worth it in the end.

7

I started my career as a chemical lab

technician, and I absolutely hated my job.

8

I learned about data science

and got immediately hooked.

9

I was like, "Wow, this is

the coolest thing ever.

10

I wanna become a data scientist."

11

And I worked really hard to learn all

the stuff I needed to learn to become

12

a data scientist, and I ultimately

landed this six-figure job at

13

ExxonMobil, which utilized my chemistry

background to be a data scientist.

14

I moved from Utah to Texas

to work at their headquarters

15

there, and it was a great job.

16

It was awesome.

17

I got paid over six figures.

18

I got a really cushy desk job.

19

I literally never worked

over 40 hours a week.

20

Um, I liked my coworkers.

21

I liked the campus that we were on.

22

Everything was really great, and I

had my dream data scientist life.

23

And that's how everything was until

it wasn't, and everything went wrong,

24

and I was absolutely miserable.

25

Although everything on the outside

looked amazing, and it was, I really

26

wasn't fulfilled at my job for a couple

different reasons, but basically, I

27

thought I was a really good contributor.

28

I thought I had really good ideas.

29

I thought I was bringing a lot to the

table, and, uh, not a lot of that was

30

getting reflected at the company, and

I grew really tired and sick of it.

31

For example, earlier, I had built an app

that they, not me, had deemed worth over

32

a billion dollars, and yes, that's B

with a billion dollars, and I don't feel

33

like I was getting the ownership or the

credit that I did on this entire project.

34

I had also started to post a lot

on LinkedIn and become kind of a

35

thought leader in terms of data

analytics plus oil and gas, and I...

36

My posts started getting

recognized by people at Exxon.

37

So for example, a VP of Exxon saw one

of my posts, reached out to me, and

38

was like, "Hey, I wanna talk to you

about data analytics at ExxonMobil."

39

And I said, "Great.

40

My manager and I would love to do

that with you," because keep in

41

mind, I'm an individual contributor.

42

I'm not a manager.

43

I'm a nobody.

44

And the VP says, "No, I don't

want you to bring your manager.

45

I just want you to come."

46

And I said, "Okay."

47

And so I told my manager, I'm like,

"Hey, this VP wants to talk to me.

48

I'm gonna go talk to him," and

my manager wouldn't let me.

49

And I was...

50

felt like I was being trapped, basically,

in my role, and that got really

51

unfulfilling in this, like, corporate

bureaucracy that I really just got

52

sick of, and I knew I was miserable

because I started tracking how happy

53

I was to walk in the door every day.

54

And instead of, you know, sevens and

eights on how happy I was, it was,

55

like, twos and threes, and at that

point, I knew something had to change.

56

But to what, I didn't really know.

57

I was always interested

in being an entrepreneur.

58

I had tried to start some businesses

in high school and college, and none

59

of them had worked out whatsoever,

but I was always fascinated by, you

60

know, owning your own business and

trying to do something on your own.

61

But I'm, like, extremely risk adverse.

62

I'm pretty cautious, and starting

my own business seemed way too much

63

of a risk for, for me to pursue.

64

And honestly, I would have never

have pursued it had it not been

65

for my loving and supportive wife

really encouraging me to try it out.

66

She knew how much it meant to me.

67

She thought I could do it, and she

believed in me more than I believed in

68

myself, and so with her confidence, I- I

went ahead and I did this: Hey, what's up?

69

And, um, I'm gonna be

resigning from ExxonMobil.

70

Um, it's a super hard decision.

71

Um, I just think I, I see

myself going in, in different

72

directions than, than the company

73

Um, yeah, it pretty much has.

74

Okay, sounds good.

75

Thanks.

76

Bye

77

I did it.

78

Oh my gosh, that was so...

79

Crazy.

80

And you might have sensed a little

bit of emotion at the end of that

81

last clip, and it's because I had

just done something that terrified me.

82

I was really scared.

83

I didn't know what I was doing.

84

I didn't know how I was going

to bring income to my family.

85

I didn't know if this was gonna work.

86

Heck, every indicator of me being

an entrepreneur previously proved

87

that this wasn't going to work.

88

I had no track record, no idea how

to actually run a business, and

89

you can hear a little bit of my

thoughts from this journal entry of

90

my last day driving home from work.

91

I'm just grateful beyond belief

to my Heavenly Father for, for

92

giving me that experience, um,

and giving me my next experience.

93

I don't know much about

my next experience.

94

It's, it's new, and it's scary,

and it's, you know, not something

95

I've truly done before, and there's

a huge risk that I'm taking.

96

Um, but definitely leaving your corporate

job to set out on your own is huge, and I

97

thank God for giving me this opportunity.

98

I really feel lucky and almost

unworthy of this experience Um, but

99

instead of feeling unworthy, I'm

just gonna feel grateful and lucky.

100

And yeah, we'll see what

the next six months bring.

101

Today is January 20th, 2020.

102

I'll see you in a year or six months.

103

The next six months were some of the

craziest months of my entire life,

104

and I was scared out of my mind.

105

I was scared to be doing

this whole business thing.

106

I didn't know what I was doing.

107

Um, but I did it, and I did it

scared, despite being scared.

108

So basically, I was doing consulting

work and freelance work, where basically

109

companies would reach out to me for d-

doing different data projects, and I

110

would do the data projects for them.

111

So I worked for a cybersecurity

company analyzing their

112

data, and it was lots of fun.

113

I got to analyze data, kind of be on

my own terms, and be a little bit more

114

useful and helpful to these companies

than I was previously at my last job.

115

And then one day, a LinkedIn influencer,

Kate Strachnyi, reached out to me,

116

and she's like, "Hey, I'm looking for

someone to make these data visualization

117

courses," and I love data visualization.

118

And I was like, "Sure, I'll be

the author of those courses."

119

So I made a Python data visualization

course and an R data visualization course.

120

And at one point, she offhandedly said,

"Yeah, well, maybe someday you'll have

121

your own academy, your own data academy,

and you could do more courses like this."

122

And I was like, "Who, me?

123

I don't think that's the case."

124

But as my time went on with

freelancing and consulting, I

125

actually realized I love to teach.

126

I reflected back on what I did at Exxon

and what I actually really enjoyed

127

there, and I actually led basically a

data nerd club at Exxon, and I loved it.

128

I loved teaching them.

129

I loved learning from other people.

130

I loved, you know, just helping

people do data projects.

131

And I realized, man, I love this.

132

This is something I actually wanna pursue.

133

And I thought, well, I pivoted

from being a chemical lab

134

technician to a data scientist.

135

What if I made a course all about

pivoting your career into data science?

136

I think that would be really

interesting, and there's not a whole

137

lot like this on the market right now.

138

And for the other 20 hours a week, I'd

work on my education product, this course

139

I was building that I was gonna call

Data Career Jumpstart because it was all

140

about jump-starting your data career.

141

And after working on that course

for about four months, I launched

142

it on August 18th of 2021.

143

And I was really nervous 'cause

I had literally just spent three

144

months of my life making this

course, and I made $0 from it so far.

145

So I was very nervous because I

had to make that money up, because

146

otherwise I just wasted all this time.

147

And I was like, "I don't

know if anyone's gonna join.

148

I don't know if I- this is worth it.

149

I don't know if I did

the right thing or not."

150

And looking back on it, I would change

a lot of things that I did differently.

151

But the course launch came

along, and, uh, it went okay.

152

It was a little bit worse than

I expected, but not terribly.

153

I was, like, kind of in the middle of

like, "Okay, do I spend more time on

154

this, or do I go back to contracting?"

155

And I, I ended up picking up a few

more contracting, uh, agreements

156

because I was like, "I don't know

if this course thing, uh, is for me.

157

I don't know if I'm good at it.

158

I don't know if, uh, you

know, how this program is.

159

Let's just see these first

batch of students, how they

160

do, and we'll go from there."

161

Now, this program was designed

around landing your first data

162

job, pivoting into data science

at the time, by building projects.

163

I've always been such a big

believer in building projects.

164

Um, and at the time, you know,

now I have the famous SPN method.

165

At the time it was the PPP method,

the 3P method, uh, which was to build

166

personal projects on your portfolio.

167

And the idea was that in this

boot camp you'd come to, we'd

168

build personal projects that

we'd put them on a portfolio.

169

What made them personal projects?

170

It was all using your data.

171

So, like, for instance, we'd use your

Spotify listening music data, your

172

Apple Watch or Fitbit fitness data, um,

your screen time data from your phone.

173

And we built projects in Google Studio, in

Python, in R, all with your personal data.

174

And of course, I still had all of

the resume and the networking, the

175

cold messaging, the actual, like, how

do you talk to hiring managers and

176

recruiters aspect of the SPN method now.

177

But I just didn't call it

the SPN method back then.

178

I was also doing weekly office hours

with our students and meeting with them

179

one-on-one to make sure that they got

all the help that they possibly needed.

180

Now, in that first batch of students,

some of them did land jobs, but many

181

of them really struggled to land jobs.

182

And when I looked back at, like, who had

success versus who didn't have success,

183

I learned something really important.

184

Number one, although doing personal

projects was really cool, I think it held

185

a lot of students back for two reasons.

186

One, using your personal data is often

hard to collect Especially if you

187

haven't been trying to do it for months.

188

Like, if you're not collecting

your screen time data, there's

189

not, like, a magical button on

your iPhone that just exports it.

190

You have to kind of be thinking about

it, how to get this data out as you go.

191

Getting your Spotify data

required using an API and also

192

for you to be using Spotify.

193

Maybe you don't have a Fitbit or

maybe you don't have an Apple Watch,

194

so some of that analysis was hard.

195

Personal data is really cool, but

you have to be really deliberate on

196

collecting it over a long period of

time to get any meaningful analysis.

197

And number two, although I really

believe that personal projects are

198

great, I figured that doing more

industry-focused projects would be better.

199

Because although analyzing your own

screen time data is cool, and, like,

200

obviously that shows that you can gather,

clean, analyze, and visualize data, and

201

that can be applied to any industry,

doing, like, more industry-specific data

202

would perhaps make a better portfolio

project for a more generic student.

203

The second thing I learned when I

looked at who had actually landed jobs

204

is the people who landed jobs weren't

landing data science jobs like I landed.

205

They were landing a little bit

lower-position jobs, like data analyst

206

or business intelligence engineer.

207

And I realized that teaching people to

pivot from, you know, a non-technical

208

space into a data scientist role was

way too big of a jump, especially

209

to do that in less than six months.

210

It made a lot more sense to do a

smaller jump of from whatever role

211

that they were in to a data analyst

role, and then eventually from a

212

data analyst to a data scientist, you

know, a year or two down the road.

213

And so I had a big problem.

214

I had built out all this curriculum

where I was teaching people to go from,

215

you know, a chemical lab technician or

whatever non-technical, non-data role

216

that you were in to a data scientist

role by building personal projects.

217

And that method didn't really 100% work

because personal projects were hard

218

to make, and the jump from wherever

you're at to data scientist was too big.

219

Around this same time, I had a really

interesting professional/personal, I

220

don't wanna call it a crisis, I'll just

call it an event that went on in my

221

life that, uh, was pretty traumatizing.

222

And this event is basically the

reason I haven't talked about

223

this for five-plus years now.

224

I didn't really feel

comfortable talking about it.

225

And now I feel like it's been long

enough in the past that hopefully

226

no one else cares and everyone

else has forgotten about me at

227

Exxon and it's all in the past.

228

But I'm fingers crossed on that.

229

And to be honest, I don't even

remember exactly how it started.

230

My guess, if I had to remember

back, is when I left Exxon, I made a

231

LinkedIn post in front of the famous

ExxonMobil cube, you know, announcing

232

my departure from the company.

233

And I guess a journalist must have

seen that picture and reached out to

234

me on LinkedIn wanting to interview

me for a story or something about,

235

you know, leaving ExxonMobil.

236

And in my head I was

just like, "Okay, sure.

237

Whatever.

238

I don't...

239

I go- I'm happy to talk about

leaving Exxon, no problem.

240

Not a big deal," right?

241

But I really wasn't paying attention

to who the journalist was or who they

242

worked for or what they were doing.

243

I was...

244

It was all just kind of on the side

for me and I was like, "Hey, maybe some

245

exposure would be good for business."

246

And honestly, I pretty much forgot

about it because it was just, like,

247

a one-time interview, and then they

sent a photographer to my house.

248

They're like, "We might use

photos, we might not," right?

249

And then a few months go by, I forget

about it, and then I, uh, basically get

250

a magazine with Elon Musk on the cover.

251

And look, I'm in the freaking-

Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.

252

So they published this huge article

about people who were leaving Exxon,

253

and I was one of the only named sources.

254

In fact, I was one out of two

named sources in the article.

255

And like I said, I didn't

really know what I was doing.

256

I was young.

257

I was just kind of doing this

as a side piece, and I was like,

258

"Oh, maybe some extra exposure."

259

And that article went extremely viral.

260

It was posted on Bloomberg and

Reuters and Yahoo, and picked up

261

by dozens of different outlets and

posted all over the internet with

262

my happy face on the front page.

263

And this kind of opened a can of worms

that I wish had never been opened before.

264

But basically, on a corporate

forum called The Layoff, people

265

started posting about this article

and specifically posting about me.

266

Now, this forum is completely

anonymous, and so it's kind of like

267

Reddit, where people can say whatever

they want with no accountability,

268

responsibility, or reliability

on if it's actually true or not.

269

So in one of these forums, the

article got posted, and basically

270

people started commenting.

271

I'll go ahead and read some of

the comments that people left.

272

All right, number one, "Avery Smith

is a worthless data scientist."

273

Hmm, great.

274

Number two, "For all the fact-checkers

out there, Avery didn't leave.

275

He got pipped."

276

I was in his group.

277

He continued to miss deadlines for

projects and barely logged in during

278

the work from home era last year.

279

So that's 100% false, and if

this person was in my group,

280

you know better than that.

281

If you don't know what PIP means, I used

to think it was an ExxonMobil only term,

282

but I've seen other people use it as well.

283

It stands for performance

improvement plan.

284

It basically means you weren't doing

good as an employee, and they warned

285

you by PIPping you, by basically saying,

"Hey, you need to get improved quickly.

286

Otherwise, we're gonna let you go."

287

And then they let you go.

288

Now, there were layoffs at ExxonMobil

happening around this time.

289

In fact, they told us in July that

layoffs would be happening in December.

290

And truth be told, I kind of did wanna

get laid off because then I'd get a

291

three-month severance package of pay.

292

And I already knew that I wanted

to quit my job, so yeah, sure,

293

I would've loved to get PIP'd.

294

I did every project I was asked

to do, and I did a good job, but I

295

wasn't gonna be mad if I got laid off.

296

I unfortunately was not laid off, and

I had to quit in January and only get

297

two weeks vacation paid out instead

of the three-month severance plan.

298

Comment number three.

299

"Wow, that one pump chump Smith

left to start his own company.

300

Must be one of BK's hot shots."

301

I don't even know what

that means, but thank you?

302

That's offensive.

303

Comment number four.

304

"No telling how inflated Avery Smith will

get seeing himself featured in an article.

305

Cringe."

306

Yeah, to be honest, that

was probably the case.

307

I was probably pretty stoked to be,

like, the front page of Yahoo for a day.

308

I wish I wouldn't have done

it, to be honest, so...

309

Okay, that of itself,

not really a big deal.

310

I- when I chose to do content and

put my life on the internet, I knew

311

these types of comments would come.

312

However, things continued to get worse.

313

A few days later on the same

forum, this post was left here.

314

"What happened in Energy 3 today?"

315

Energy 3 is one of the buildings

on the campus at ExxonMobil.

316

"Got a stand down meeting

invitation but suddenly canceled.

317

Rumor said something obnoxious happened."

318

So basically this means, like, the

campus was put on emergency mode where

319

there was some sort of threat on campus.

320

And this comment was left there.

321

"A former employee, he was mentioned

in some article that was posted on here

322

last week," that's me, "for creating

a data science company while working

323

at Exxon last year, came back onto

campus and caused a scene in E3."

324

"I suppose the attention the article got

caused ExxonMobil lawyers to look into it.

325

And then there was a bunch of comments

that I started my company on ExxonMobil

326

time with ExxonMobil computers, and

I should be stripped of my company.

327

And that wasn't true at all, but I just

didn't like the rumors being spread

328

about that because you just never

know in corporate world what people

329

will say and what companies will do.

330

'I suppose the attention the article

got caused ExxonMobil lawyers to look

331

into it, and they seized ownership

of his company since it's technically

332

company property as it was created during

ExxonMobil time on an ExxonMobil computer.

333

And today he came back

to express his rage.

334

Not sure what it accomplished though.

335

Long story short, if you're going

to create another company during

336

ExxonMobil time on an ExxonMobil

computer, don't advertise it.'"

337

And the comments went on in that forum to

basically insinuate that I, like, jumped

338

in an Uber and snuck onto campus 'cause

the campus there is super high security.

339

You basically can't get in the

campus, and then you can't get in

340

any door, and then you can't get

up any elevator without, like, two

341

different keys basically to get in.

342

That I somehow snuck through all of

that and started throwing papers all

343

over the place and trashing the office

because I was mad at ExxonMobil.

344

Now, obviously, and I shouldn't even

have to say this, none of that is true.

345

And honestly, it felt

like a smear campaign.

346

It felt like someone was out to get me.

347

And I honestly just got kinda scared

because I just didn't like people

348

talking about me in untruthful ways.

349

So this is where my risky bet

of quitting my job and starting

350

my business has gotten me.

351

In a boot camp that half works,

and this whole newspaper written

352

about me and everyone writing

mean things about me online.

353

Was it worth it?

354

At this point, I didn't think it was.

355

My wife and I had also decided at this

point that we wanted to have kids and

356

bring in some babies into the world,

and, uh, I was in a position where

357

it didn't feel like I was ready to

add the extra responsibility into

358

my life because look at my business.

359

It's not doing as well

as I hope it would do.

360

And so truth be told, I honestly

felt like giving up some days.

361

I wanted to go back to

the corporate world.

362

I wanted to stop doing the boot camp.

363

I wanted to stop doing consulting and

just do a normal job because that was

364

normal and boring, and no one would get

mad at me, and, uh, it would be easier.

365

And honestly, thanks to God and some

other mentors, I did not give up,

366

and I redid the entire Bootcamp.

367

From beginning to end, I redid everything.

368

Now, the core concepts of projects

and networking and learning the

369

skills were, were still there.

370

In fact, that was the whole basis of it.

371

I sat down on a piece of paper

and pen for days trying to come

372

up with the method name, and

eventually landed on the SBN Method.

373

Learn the skills, build the project,

and do the networking, and that is the

374

formula to landing your first data job.

375

I redid the entire curriculum, redid

all of the projects from scratch,

376

focusing on industry projects, not

personal projects, and put greater

377

emphasis on skills that were actually

being used by the general practitioners

378

of data analysts, not data scientists.

379

I no longer was trying to help

people go from, you know, whatever

380

job they had to whatever data job.

381

Specifically, I wanted to help

people land data analyst jobs,

382

because those are the people in

my first bootcamp who had success.

383

I would do 10 modules.

384

Each module would have a project, each

module would have a skill, and each

385

module would have a networking activity.

386

And I launched that at the very end

387

thing Data Analytics Accelerator.

388

And the results, well,

they've been unbelievable.

389

We've had 1,000-plus students in the

accelerator program, and we've helped so

390

many people land their first data job.

391

I made enough money to support my family

and my new babies into my family's

392

world, and I got immense fulfillment

out of helping people get out of

393

careers that they felt miserable, like

I felt at my chemical lab technician,

394

and help them get into careers that

they truly and actually enjoyed.

395

Just as one example, my friend from

my LDS mission called me one day.

396

She was a special needs education

teacher, and she said, "Avery,

397

I can't take it anymore.

398

I know you help people

become a data analyst.

399

I wanna become a data analyst."

400

And I said, "Great.

401

Let's get you in the program."

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And a few months later, she called

me and left me this voicemail.

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Avery freaking Smith.

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I...

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Sorry I'm bothering you right now.

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I just had to call you because I

just got a phone call from Chase.

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The interview went good, and they would

like to move forward with the hiring

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process, so I am beyond excited right now.

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Holy cow.

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Um, anyways, they said they would send

official offers in probably three days.

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So I'm just, phew, literally

so excited I can't even, like,

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think straight right now.

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Um, I just wanna tell you thank you.

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If anything more, this whole process

has made me extremely, extremely

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grateful for the people that the

Lord has blessed my life with.

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So I wanted to call you and tell

you thank you so much, and I am

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excited to keep learning and growing,

and I'll message you and fill you

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in on where it goes from here.

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But I just wanted to tell you thank you.

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I really appreciate you.

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It's been a heck of a ride the

last five years, and it's 100%

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worth it for voicemails like that.

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The opportunity I've had to help people

shape their lives and shape their careers

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is truly one I don't take lightly,

and I'm really grateful and humbled

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that I get to be in this situation.

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So that big risk, that stupid

decision, that reason why I quit my

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data job five years ago, 100% worth

it, and I've got a good feeling

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it's only going to get better.

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So if you wanna experience the next

five years of this data journey,

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please hit Subscribe, and I'll

see you guys in the next episode.