Despite earning nearly $350,000 (approximately ₹ 3.3 crore) annually at Google, he always envisioned working for himself. The ultimate turning point came after a personal loss in 2022, prompting him to leave the comfortable tech giant, rely on his savings, and launch his own startup. Leaving a lucrative corporate role is rarely easy, but for one tech professional, the decision was clear from the start.
“People ask when I decided to leave Google. Honestly? Day one. I always knew I wanted to work for myself. It just wasn’t mine,” Kevin Naughton Jr wrote on Instagram while sharing a video of his conversation with Jugal Bhatt. When did you decide to leave Google ? Bhatt asked Naughton Jr. Though he was aware of his goals, a personal loss became a turning point for Naughton Jr. You have to do what you want. You have to be happy every day. And I knew that, as great as Google was – I think it’s the best nine-to-five job I honestly could have – but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do every day. Bhatt asked. “How did you finally leave? Like, what was the final thing that you did before you left? The former Google techie explained, “Yeah, so something that’s funny is I’m actually pretty conservative as a person in terms of taking risks. But in my head, I saw it as I had years of runway saved up.”
But the real turning point was 2022. Google was the best 9-to-5 job I could’ve asked for. “So, Kevin, you are making north of 300,000, almost 350k.
So that was like a really big, you know, just wake-up call.
When Bhatt asked, “What was the turning point?”, the man responded, “In 2022, I lost my dad.
