Many conversations about AI-driven job losses frame entrepreneurship as “freedom.” But what if you don’t want to start a business? In this episode, I talk honestly about why not everyone is wired to be a solopreneur—and why that matters as AI reshapes work.

This episode is for people who have been laid off or displaced and are quietly overwhelmed by the pressure to “figure it out” on their own. There's the idea that they can do that, armed with a bunch of AI tools. Even though it may be theoretically possible, I don't think this is an accurate portrayal of the situation people find themselves in. I share my own accidental path into solopreneurship, the support that made it possible, and why my experience doesn’t generalize to everyone.

I don’t offer a neat solution. Instead, I sit with the discomfort of a system that celebrates independence while ignoring uneven risk, caregiving realities, and psychological cost. There has to be more than one path forward. I cover some possibilties in my Substack substack.com/@adelewang

Q: What happens when AI layoffs push people into entrepreneurship? What if people don't want to be business owners?

A: Not everyone benefits from becoming a solopreneur. While some thrive with autonomy, others experience increased stress, financial insecurity, and emotional overload—especially when they didn’t choose this path.

I explore this topic more deeply on Substack, where I write longer essays on work, AI, and meaning. Visit me at substack.com/@adelewang

If you've heard some of the rhetoric about how some of the job losses because of AI

might be a great opportunity for people to explore freedom and entrepreneurship,

and finally doing business the way they wanna do this clip is for you.

Hey, Adele Wong here and welcome to this podcast where we explore the

intersection of what's changing in our world because of AI and tech

and human behavior, psychology, relationships, and everything else.

Recently I saw a post talking about how in many ways there's a certain

gaslighting that's going on right now when we're confronted with what's

happening in the job market because of ai.

AI is projected to cause a lot of job losses because of automation and AI can

do a lot of things more productively than humans can do, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And it feels like sometimes there's a. I wouldn't say a consolation message,

but there's also a message right behind that says entrepreneurship is

gonna explode because now everyone is freed up to run their own businesses.

They're no longer having to be in large corporations.

They have the freedom, the skills, the experience to become entrepreneurs maybe

solopreneurs as consultants, et cetera.

I am going to go into more depth about how there's been a huge attitudinal change.

If you go to my substack, I've traced where people have gone from

one extreme to the other in terms of how we view solo entrepreneurship.

But in this clip, I wanna just stay present with how I feel about this

because the reality is there are going to be a lot of people who are.

Not really wild about becoming a solopreneur.

Kind of like me.

I was never wanting to be an entrepreneur.

I know there are some people that from a young age wanted

to run their own business.

I've met them.

They've often had a very independent drive from a young age, which is great.

They were very motivated to do things their way.

And they already knew they would never be happy working for someone else.

They wanna run their own business.

Yay.

I'm talking to people who maybe you've been let go and you're

being told, well, now here's your opportunity to run your own business,

and maybe you just don't want to.

I think it's time to get honest that not everyone is

designed to be an entrepreneur.

I, for example, like I said, did not really.

Aspire to be a solopreneur.

It happened by accident.

It also happened during a time when I had a lot of support from my husband.

This, it was just a great opportunity for me to explore what was possible

because I had a lot of support my.

Side business as a coach was doing extremely well.

While I was also doing quite well in corporate, I had a job in a major Fortune

10 company, and I was doing well at both.

Well, you can imagine there are only a certain number of hours in the day and

a human only has a certain amount of energy, and I was given an opportunity

to take a break from one, the corporate opportunity, and they wanted me to return

within, I think it was like six weeks.

It was due to a tax situation with large corporations who often use.

Contractors to help with certain things.

There's a limit to how long you can keep them, and then you bring them

back in and I was their top analyst and I thought, wow, this is amazing.

Here's my opportunity to explore the other side of the house and see

what I can do to make it happen.

And of course, six weeks came and went and I could never quite got around

to rejoining the corporate world.

And then two months went by, three months went by, they kept

contacting me and I was very honored that they still wanted me back.

And my entrepreneur foray was doing quite well and I also

noticed it was much more stressful.

I was always on thinking about what I should do.

It was hard for me to relax.

I was often overwhelmed with things that I didn't know how to do or didn't

want to do, did not know how to do it.

So I was working all the time.

It's a different lifestyle, and even though I was doing well, I sometimes

wonder what would've happened.

Had I not had the opportunity to explore in a safe way on my own, and this is what

a lot of people don't get, not everyone has an opportunity to go away and try

something for six weeks and return back to home base if it doesn't work out.

So it was a nice problem to have.

It worked out for me.

But the reason why I recorded this is that I'm thinking about all these people

who get let go from a job and suddenly find themselves faced with needing

to create something by themselves.

And perhaps maybe some of them have always wanted to run their own business, and they

already know you're gonna work three times harder than if you have a salaried job.

They already know.

It's a lot.

But there are gonna be some people who they just don't want to, and

I feel like we need to give those people some recognition, some support.

I don't have the answer.

I just know in my bones, not everyone is wired to be a solopreneur.

Right now.

It is kind of glamorized.

The entrepreneurship world is seen as more noble than working for a large company.

It wasn't always like this.

And so there may be some people that feel like, why am I not enjoying this?

I've had clients going through this experience and it took a while before

they really owned, I don't like this.

And then sometimes there's a pressure of, even if I don't like this.

Do I keep doing this to put food on the table?

I don't know.

I don't know the answer, but I don't think the world was designed

that everybody leave corporate and start their own businesses.

I think there are some people for whom that is a wonderful solution.

And for others, I think it would be way too much stress for,

in some cases, soul crushing.

If this isn't you, and let's say you're a single parent and you've got three kids

and you've never run a business and you got let go, are we gonna tell this woman?

Oh, now you have to learn how to run a business all by yourself and

take care of your three little ones.

It's absurd.

So I don't have the answer here, but I do hope we come up with more

than one path for everyone who is let go from a quote unquote job.

I do go more into this in my substack with possible employment models, I

think could work that don't require somebody to start hanging a shingle and

doing everything all for themselves.

So if that interests you, check out my Substack.

I didn't wanna make this episode too long.

It's my substack is wired for meaning.

You just look up my name on Substack and I post.

Longer essays there that often get into the depth of things.

That would be too much for a podcast episode anyway.

I'd love to hear from you.

How do you feel about running a business by yourself?

Now, entrepreneurship is a whole different animal than being a salaried employee, and

then within that solo partner is a subset.

It, and they're not always the same.

Thanks for listening.

I welcome your thoughts on this as we move into the new world.