I spent 5 years earning a PhD I don’t use.

I spent 5 years earning a PhD I don’t use. Opportunity cost: $500k+

Do I regret it?

Not for a minute.
Because it gave me something even more valuable: the clarity to know I wanted a different path.

In academia, the timeline for impact is...slow... You write for years. Hope for citations. Maybe one day someone reads it.
But I couldn’t wait. I needed to feel the work move people NOW.

Even during my PhD, the signs were there: I started a newsletter. Ran my own conferences. Pitched an applied anthropology magazine.
While others buried themselves in footnotes, I was building things.

Ideas are powerful.
But I’ve always been more interested in where they go - and who they change.

So I left.

Moved into community non-profit work. Built a startup.
Now, I coach high achievers who are questioning the path they’re on.

I get to influence real people.
Watch them transform.
And know that each shift ripples outward.
Because when high achievers change, the world changes with them.

Walking away doesn’t mean the path was a mistake.
It taught me what matters to me - and gave me the clarity to choose it.