Episode 815 | Unexpected Skills Your Day Job Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship (Rob Solo)

2026-01-13

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Can your 9-to-5 job secretly prepare you to be a founder? In this solo episode, Rob Walling shares 11 unexpected lessons from his own day jobs, from courier to electrician to engineering manager, and how each role quietly taught him skills that shaped his success as a SaaS founder. He dives into the value of curiosity, self-education, and learning to lead before you ever start a company. Episode Sponsor: If you’ve got a strong vision but no technical partner, you need more than a “vibe-coded” MVP, you need a real found...

Can your 9-to-5 job secretly prepare you to be a founder?

In this solo episode, Rob Walling shares 11 unexpected lessons from his own day jobs, from courier to electrician to engineering manager, and how each role quietly taught him skills that shaped his success as a SaaS founder. He dives into the value of curiosity, self-education, and learning to lead before you ever start a company.

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Topics we cover:

(2:03) – Why every day job can teach entrepreneurial skills
(4:44) – Lesson #1: Figuring things out when instructions are unclear
(7:27) – Lesson #2: Learning to respect other people’s time
(9:05) – Lesson #3: How early self-education compounds over time
(11:33) – Lesson #4: Embracing hard, unglamorous work
(14:09) – Lesson #5: Why experience always beats credentials
(16:42) – Lesson #6: Letting the buck stop with you
(17:44) – Lesson #7: Knowing when to cut corners (and when not to)
(20:11) – Lesson #8: Finding the right people to work with
(21:33) – Lesson #9: Managing and motivating people as a learned skill
(23:53) – Lesson #10: Turning hiring and firing into Founder superpowers
(26:11) – Lesson #11: The value of exposure to well-run systems

Links from the Show:

MicroConf Mastermind Matching – Apply before January 16th
The SaaS Playbook by Rob Walling
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
MicroConf
Rob Walling @robwalling) | X

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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