Ever since I was a teenager, I had a specific dream. It wasn’t about a particular job title or a salary figure. It was simpler, more iconic: I wanted to have an email address that ended in @apple.com. To me, that was the ultimate symbol of having made it in the world of technology and design.
And I did it. I got the email address, and for 13 years, Apple was the company of my life. It was everything I had hoped for and more. I was part of a culture that genuinely changed the world, surrounded by some of the most brilliant and passionate people I’ve ever met. It was a fantastic chapter.
But stability and comfort can sometimes feel like a golden cage. After more than a decade, I had the growing sense that I was becoming stagnant. My learning curve had flattened, and the challenges that once excited me had become routine. I felt like I was maintaining a role rather than growing into a new one. The creative spark that had driven me for so long felt like it was beginning to dim.
That’s when I knew I had to make a change. I realized it was the right time to start something new, to step out of the world’s most comfortable safety net and into the unknown. The decision was terrifying. Voluntarily leaving the biggest, most successful company on the planet felt, to many, like an act of professional madness.
But for me, it was an act of self-investment. It was an opportunity to either build my own vision, which I started with my company, Orukami, or to find a new challenge in a role that would put my true passion—creativity—front and center.
Walking away from Apple was, without a doubt, the most important and difficult professional decision of my life. It wasn’t about leaving a company I had grown to love; it was about moving towards a future where I could be challenged again, where I could build something from scratch, and where my creative drive could be the main engine of my work. It was a leap of faith, but I knew it was the only way to write the next, most exciting chapter of my story.
