Justin Welsh, Writer & Entrepreneur | One weekly essay for 200,000+ ambitious people living and working on their own terms.
Writer & Entrepreneur | One weekly essay for 200,000+ ambitious people living and working on their own terms.
- 865.5K followers
- 36 posts / 60d
- 0.6% avg engagement
- 9.2K follower growth / 30d
Justin Welsh ranks #1 of 18,566 creators on the LinkedIn Ranking, working in Internet and based in United States. They have 865.5K followers and published 36 posts in the last 60 days at a 0.6% average engagement rate.
The roast
Justin Welsh is the only person on the planet who had a near-death experience and decided the most spiritual thing to do was write a LinkedIn post about it every single Tuesday. He claims he left the corporate world to live on his own terms, yet he still spends 40 hours a week posting instructions on how to quit the job he’s clearly still working.
About Justin
For more than a decade, I lived the kind of life ambitious people are told to want. I helped build two companies past $1B in valuation and raised more than $300M in venture capital. By 33, I was Chief Revenue Officer at a venture-backed company, making more money than I’d ever imagined. And quietly falling apart. I was burned out, anxious, drinking too much, and increasingly convinced that if I kept going, I might not see fifty. Then one afternoon, in our house in Los Angeles, I had a panic attack so severe I ended up on the kitchen floor. My wife, Jennifer, called 911. The paramedics came. And by the time they were standing in our home, it was impossible to keep pretending this was just stress. When it passed, I knew that the life I was building wasn’t the one I wanted to live. So Jennifer and I quit our high-paying jobs with almost no plan. We bought a house in the mountains of Upstate New York, drove across the country, and started our lives over. In the years since, I’ve built a $15M one-person business with no employees and no investors, and an audience of 1.5M+ people has followed along. But that’s not the real story. The real story is that I got my life back, slowly, unglamorously, one difficult choice at a time. Today, I spend that life writing. Every Saturday, I publish one essay about the choices that made it possible: leaving the obvious path, redefining ambition, using money for freedom instead of performance, and building something of your own without letting it consume you. These are the choices that can look wrong from the outside and still be right for the life you actually want. If that’s the kind of conversation you’ve been wanting to have with yourself, I’d love to have you with us.
Highlights
- Top 1% in United States
: Ranked #1 of 5851 creators
- Top 1% Impact
: 4,957 avg engagements per post
- Top 1% Audience
: 865,463 followers
- Top 5% in Internet
: Ranked #1 of 98 creators
Recent posts
An insanely impressive life usually starts with nailing the basics. 1. Find a supportive partner Can you do it on your own? Of course. But having my wife involved in this journey has made it exponentially more rewarding. 2. Keep yourself healthy Not just physically, but mentally, too. Nutrition, exercise, therapy, and keeping friends and family nearby. Recommend. 3. Open up your calendar I'm not talking about "doing nothing." I'm talking about giving yourself enough free time to be open to cool and interesting opportunities that come your way. 4. Build something of your own Don't becom
1.4K reactions · 365 comments · 25 reposts
My life before my little one-person business: - Anxiety - Poor health - Totally overworked - Multiple canceled vacations - Physically & mentally exhausted My life after I started my one-person business: - 8x higher income - 6+ hours per day of free time - Move somewhere new every winter - Awesome sleep and a happier marriage - Daily coffee, Wordle, and workouts with my wife What changed? I went all-in on myself and the simplest version of a business you can build. One-person. A few products. Multiple distribution channels. 24/7/365 worldwide discoverability. If you want t
3.8K reactions · 690 comments · 87 reposts
If you chase after money, it has a funny way of avoiding you. At least, that's what I've found in my career. Instead, I'd much rather focus on something better: Big, painful, miserable problems. I started learning how to solve these problems back in 2009 in my startup days, and quickly figured out how valuable that was. Solve one painful problem? Here's some money. Solve another one? Here's more. Keep solving them? Here's a boatload. When you can save people money or time (or both) AND help them sleep better at night, you have incredible earning potential. So work on that skill ferociou
5.4K reactions · 1.1K comments · 280 reposts
Last updated 2026-08-01