I Quit My High Paying Product Job to Bet on Myself
Channel: Peter Yang
Uploaded:
Duration: PT919S
Read a transcript preview of “I Quit My High Paying Product Job to Bet on Myself” from Peter Yang, uploaded on 2026-06-10.
Transcript preview
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] Hey everyone. So, last year I made seven
[0:02] figures at my product job, and just last
[0:04] week I quit that job to bet on myself.
[0:07] Now, this wasn't an easy choice to make.
[0:09] After over a decade in product, walking
[0:11] away felt like giving up a core part of
[0:13] my identity.
[0:16] And this is going to be the most
[0:17] personal video that I've made yet on
[0:19] this channel. But, I want to share five
[0:21] principles that have helped me make this
[0:23] choice, and I hope that they'll help
[0:25] you, too, in your career.
[0:27] Number one is to go where work feels
[0:30] like play.
[0:31] You know, I became a PM over a decade
[0:33] ago because I wanted to ship great
[0:35] products. I loved the loop of
[0:37] understanding problems, identifying
[0:39] solutions, and executing to craft
[0:41] something great.
[0:43] And that loop is exactly what I got to
[0:44] do at Roblox. I have a lot of fond
[0:47] memories from building and shipping
[0:50] amazing creator products and tools
[0:52] with my talented team of engineers,
[0:54] designers, and PMs.
[0:57] And most of all, I loved watching Roblox
[0:59] creators light up as we put these
[1:01] products into their hands.
[1:03] But, there's another side of product
[1:05] management that I didn't love, and it
[1:07] exists in some form at all the great
[1:09] companies that I've worked at. I call it
[1:11] product management theater.
[1:13] And it's when the focus shifts to
[1:15] polishing internal documents over the
[1:18] actual user-facing product, getting
[1:20] stakeholder alignment over doing what's
[1:23] right for customers, and climbing the
[1:25] career ladder over building and shipping
[1:27] products that you can be truly proud of.
[1:30] Early in my career, I spent 4 hours in a