If you have been thinking about starting a side project for a while but unsure how to take that first step, Nick offers some invaluable advice in this episode!

Nick Singh is a LinkedIn top voice, best selling author, and founder of DataLemur, a platform that has helped over 200,000 people prepare for SQL and data science coding interviews.

Nick’s story isn’t just about leaving a 9-5. It’s about realizing he wasn’t using his full potential at big tech. In this conversation, Nick got extremely real about feeling below average at his software engineering job at Meta. This is a story of how he eventually decided to carve out his own niche instead of following the traditional career playbook. While many of Nick’s peers chased promotions or VC funding, Nick chose to write a book and build his own path, even when people doubted him.

We talked about the real side of leaving a 9-to-5—the struggles, the uncertainty, and the myth of overnight success. Nick opened up about questioning his career, tuning out outside noise, and staying action-biased instead of overthinking every move.

📲 Connect with Nick:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-singh-tech/

DataLemur: https://datalemur.com

Ace the Data Science Interview: https://amzn.to/4iNfYZZ

00:00 Introduction

00:32 Nick's Early Career and Realizations

01:15 The Decision to Leave Big Tech

02:36 Life After Quitting the 9 to 5

05:31 Finding and Validating New Ideas

13:05 The Importance of Commitment Over Ideas

18:58 Creating a Unique Niche

23:08 Balancing Work and Passion Projects

24:50 The Barbell Strategy Explained

28:35 Validating Ideas on LinkedIn

31:35 Overcoming Doubts and Criticism

35:02 Building DataLemur: Sacrifices and Lessons

40:46 Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

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