Knowing when to leave a role you built

I spent 7 years building a company. Then I walked away.

Not because it failed. Not because I got pushed out. Because I realized I was staying for the wrong reasons.

Here’s what nobody tells you about being a long-tenured operator: your identity fuses with the company. After 7 years as COO, I couldn’t tell where Wild Earth ended and I began. Every system had my fingerprints. Every process ran through me.

That’s not a flex. That’s the problem.

I started noticing the signs:

I was solving the same problems at higher stakes, but not learning new things.

I was optimizing a machine I’d already built instead of building something new.

The work still mattered. But it had stopped changing me.

The hardest part wasn’t making the decision. It was admitting that loyalty isn’t the same as purpose. I’d confused “they need me” with “this is where I should be.”

Leaving a role you built is grief. You mourn the version of yourself that lived there. But staying too long has its own cost. You trade your best years for comfort disguised as commitment.

If you’re a founder or operator asking yourself “is it time?” here’s what I’d say: the question itself is the answer. You just need the courage to hear it.

What made you finally leave a role you loved?