A year ago, I wrote about making the biggest decision of my professional life: leaving my dream job at Apple. It was a leap into the unknown, driven by a deep need for creative growth and new challenges. Now, 365 days later, it’s time to look back and share the unvarnished truth of what this year has been like.
Let me be direct: it hasn’t been easy. The economic security that a company like Apple provides is a safety net you don’t fully appreciate until it’s gone. There have been moments of doubt, moments when projects didn’t take off as expected, and the quiet whisper of “what if” echoed in my mind. That stability is always in the rearview mirror.
But this year has also been one of the most creatively explosive periods of my life. For 13 years, my mind was a pressure cooker of ideas that I couldn’t develop due to my commitment and the necessary business conduct rules. The moment I left, the lid came off. I dove headfirst into everything I had ever wanted to build:
- A record label: Synthetic Records, for the music I was passionate about.
- A publishing house: Bookia, to explore new forms of storytelling.
- An academy: Fruitby, to help newcomers get the most out of the Apple ecosystem.
- Multiple YouTube channels, each a different canvas for digital creation.
- A video game: Enigma, a project set during the Second World War.
- An app for collectors: coverly, designed to help organize comic book collections.
Have any of these ventures given me the financial stability I left behind? Not yet. But they have given me something I was desperately searching for: the profound satisfaction of creating something out of nothing, of taking an idea from a simple thought to a finished product, 100% on my own. This year has been an intense, real-world MBA in every field of digital creation, sharpening my skills in design, video, audio, marketing, and strategy.
I have found the creative fulfillment I was looking for. Now, it’s time to find the right place to channel all this new energy and experience. This year of intense exploration has clarified my next goal: to find stability and a new challenge, ideally within a dynamic startup where I can pour my passion and wide-ranging skills into helping a team build something truly special.
Leaving Apple was the right decision. It was a necessary reset. And now, I’m more prepared than ever for what comes next.
