Your Obligation at a Day Job

Let’s get something straight—when you work for a company, your obligation is simple: you exchange your time and expertise for a paycheck. That’s the deal. If you’re salaried, the expectation is generally around 40 hours a week. If you’re hourly, it’s even more straightforward—work the hours, get paid for the hours. That’s the contract.

So when you're at work, do your job well. That’s your responsibility. If you agreed to do it for a certain salary or even for free, then own up to that agreement.

But here’s where many people get stuck: they feel undervalued, underappreciated, or overlooked for promotions. And while that frustration is understandable, it’s also irrelevant. You signed up for a specific job at a specific rate. If you get a promotion or a raise—great. But if you’re killing yourself just to get noticed? That’s a losing game.

Why Recognition is a Fool’s Errand

Too many people think that if they just go above and beyond, work long hours, or take on extra projects, someone will recognize them and reward them. But here’s the reality—recognition isn’t guaranteed. You’re making yourself beholden to someone else’s judgment, and that’s dangerous territory.

If you’re putting in extra hours because you truly want to, that’s fine. But if you’re doing it in the hopes that someone will notice you and suddenly hand you a promotion, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Do the job you were hired for, do it well, and then move on.

Focus on What You Can Control

So why does this matter to your own projects? Because that same flawed mindset creeps into entrepreneurship. People hesitate to launch their website, their product, or their idea because they feel like it’s not “ready” yet. They keep tweaking, keep improving, hoping for perfection, hoping for validation. But that’s just another version of waiting for recognition.

Stop waiting. Launch the dang thing.

It doesn’t need to be perfect. It doesn’t need to impress everyone. The only way to build success is to get it out the door and start iterating.

Own Your Success

Your day job is exactly what you agreed to—it’s a paycheck, not your identity. Your success? That’s in your hands. It’s in what you do after work, in the projects you build, in the businesses you create.

If you’re spending all your energy trying to get noticed at your job, you’re missing the point. Put in the work, cash your check, and then build something for yourself. Something that you control. Something that doesn’t depend on someone else’s approval.

Final Thought: Just Launch It

Stop waiting for permission. Stop trying to be perfect. Stop hoping someone else will give you the green light. Launch the dang thing.

The faster you release, the faster you learn. The faster you iterate, the faster you grow. And at the end of the day, the only recognition that matters is the success you build for yourself.

So what are you waiting for? Go build it.