End of funmaxxing
six months of unemployed on purpose
Hi Friends
Six months ago, when I returned from San Francisco, I announced that I am going unemployed on purpose, and I promised that I will be honest with this social experiment so I don’t create delusions of grandeur for anybody. So this essay is my honesty packed for your inbox. It has three sections only, what worked, what didn’t work and next steps, give it a read.
One more thing before you get into it
When I started this experiment in November, the world felt like a different place. AI was accelerating but nobody was panicking yet. The flex was freedom and saying “I quit to live with curiosity” out loud.
The last two months, everything has changed. AI stopped being a trend and became an existential question for a lot of people’s careers. There’s actual talk of world war 3 and geopolitical instability that no longer is fictional. And in that environment, the conversations have shifted completely.
Nobody is romanticizing freedom anymore, because freedom is a paradox.
The real flex right now is a calm nervous system, financial predictability and waking up without dread. Let’s get into it now.
What Worked?
The new experiences and diversity of learnings.
When you don’t have a fixed desk and a recurring Monday standup, you start saying yes to things that would’ve been “let me check my calendar” situations before. I was at the Bengaluru Social Science Festival organized by a close friend, spending time in a world of social entrepreneurship.
I was part of the India AI Summit and hosted an AI Film Festival at Qutub Minar in Delhi, which is as surreal as it sounds. Mughal architecture and AI generated cinema in the same frame!
I started building the Pune Founders Community, the 411 Founders Club, which is my unfair advantage now in this city. I did some of my best video storytelling work I’ve ever done with the Marchtee team. None of these would have happened if I was still sitting at the same desk, working on the same thing.
In all these experiences, the people were the bigger win. I crossed paths with founders building weird, interesting things. Artists with entirely different frameworks for thinking about value.
Then there’s the new found love for content. I went from 4,000 to 10,000 followers.
I know, in the grand scheme of internet numbers, that’s not viral. But for years I used to sit on my sofa scrolling reels thinking “ye toh hum bhi kar lege” and never did. So the fact that I actually sat down, made content with intention, showed up consistently, and watched it translate into new connections that matters to me more than the number.
I finally stopped being the guy who was consuming more than creating.
But if you asked me what was the most fun thing from these six months, it would be the cricket games. I played without any worry of the world or work. Having a mind that has nothing to worry is such a big privilege that I cannot explain in words.
When you’re on a cricket ground you are entirely there. Not partially there while thinking about a deliverable, not half-present while composing a reply in your head. You’re thinking about the match situation, this over, this batter, what would you do if you were the captain right now. It pulls your whole mind into one place. And then your body has to execute what your mind figured out in two seconds.
That test, of thinking clearly and then doing something physical with that clarity, no productivity framework can replicate it. Still have to go to physiotherapy sometimes for my old age.
The last thing that worked is harder to write about.
Somewhere before any of this started, 2024 had been a difficult year for me in ways more personal than professional. I won’t get into it here. But the version of ‘Pawan’ that started this experiment in November had been emotionally unavailable for a long time.
It took therapy, some serendipity, and the slower pace of these six months to start feeling things properly again.
If I’m honest, that might be the single most transformational thing that happened in this experiment, I was finally able to connect with another human being emotionally.
What didn’t work?
Living on invoices is not entrepreneurial freedom. Around month-end, chasing payments starts feeling like begging.
The creative energy you thought you’d bring to your work gets replaced by anxiety about whether this month’s money arrives before next month’s bills. I have zero romance left for invoice life. Zero.
Here’s the second thing that didn’t work out well. I started this experiment partly to spend more time with family and friends. And then the freelance pressure of potentially losing a client made me less present at home than when I had a full time job.
My siblings knew I had quit. My parents didn’t. They still don’t and I hope they don’t read this newsletter.
And every freelance project needed me on priority. I was always thinking, if I don’t perform here, I’m going to lose this client. That anxiety ate exactly the time I’d promised myself with family & friends. The mountains trip at the beginning was real. After that, the people I love most became the ones I was putting lower on the priority list. This is regretful.
I also took on too many projects. I perform best on two, maybe three total things at a time including personal projects. I was running six simultaneously. None of them got my actual best. The lesson isn’t about discipline, I think I get interested too fast. I said ‘yes’ to too many things because each one felt genuinely exciting at the time.
Being a 31 year old man in India also means something I underestimated. My choices, even when I make them entirely for myself, don’t stay inside myself. They ripple into people who didn’t sign up to be part of the experiment. The idea that you can fully separate your journey from your people is a convenient fantasy. I partly believed it when I started.
Lastly, I thought I will have a lot of time for wellness and meditation, sadly I overestimated my planning. I didn’t hit the gym that often, nor did I do breathing exercises at home. I screwed up on this part too.
What next?
I have understood I perform best when I have a center of gravity. So I am going to have one primary project, and have 2 or maximum 3 side projects. This includes personal and professional everything in total.
I’m going to take up a primary job in the AI in healthcare space, which is very entrepreneurial in its own way. It’s not like a traditional job. Healthcare is where that collision between technology and human life is going to matter most in the next ten years. Where the stakes are actually real. Where good marketing isn't about making noise, it's about making something genuinely complex feel human and accessible.
That’s the work I want to do.
And this moment is the right moment. The world is uncertain, AI is moving fast, and healthcare is one of the few spaces where that speed needs someone to slow it down and explain it to actual people. That’s a marketer’s job.
The side projects continue. This newsletter. The Pune Founders Community. The IG content. But built around a clear center now, with the right priority order. Anything new that comes my way will be a straight NO.
I wouldn’t have imagined this outcome out of the unemployed on purpose experiment, and that is why I am a big believer of what Steve Jobs says
Cheers, leave a reply or comment on this and I will reply back.
-Pawan.
Loved your perspective over life. It was quite insightful for me. Thanks
Loved reading this through your own lived experiences.