I wasn’t just laid off from a job.
I was laid off from who I thought I was.
For years, the job gave me structure, status, and a clean answer to the question “so what do you do?” The title was the identity. The company was the proof I mattered.
Then the 11-minute Zoom call happened.
And suddenly I had freedom I didn’t ask for and no idea what to do with it.
The layoff statistics make it look numerical. 45,000 in 2026. They don’t capture the specific, quiet devastation of realizing your sense of self was housed in someone else’s org chart.
Here’s what nobody tells you: that devastation is the most useful thing that could have happened.
Not because pain builds character. That’s fortune-cookie garbage.
Because the identity crisis forces the question most people never get to ask while employed: who am I when the company’s brand stops backing me up?
What remains when the title disappears is the real you. The actual skills. The hard-earned judgment. The pattern recognition nobody handed you.
That remainder belongs to no one else.
This weekend, you could start building something in your own name.
About The Author
Lee Kariuki is a behavioral design consultant, author, and coach who helps consultants, coaches, and founders remove the hidden friction that prevents decisions and action. Known as “the consultant to consultants,” his work focuses on how the human brain actually processes choice, risk, and overload. Lee doesn’t teach hype or motivation. He designs clarity—through behavioral frameworks that shorten decision cycles, validate offers quickly, and create momentum that sticks.
