Have you ever wondered why the harder you work, the more afraid you become of leaving your current position? Many people think stability is a safe path, but in reality it is often a trap that uses your entire life as collateral while offering zero protection.
The protagonist of this story, Ajie, is 35 years old and the star salesman at a mid-sized traditional manufacturing company. He made what most people would call the smartest choice of all — staying loyal to his post — and in doing so, he lost his entire future.
Rewind five years to the peak of Ajie’s career. For three months he parked himself alone in Tainan with one car, not just visiting clients, but visiting their downstream suppliers, helping them solve shipping issues, bonding with the old masters on the factory floor, listening to their complaints, even bringing them boxed lunches. He spent three months mapping out an industry ecosystem chart that was more detailed than any competitor’s, and paired it with a tailor-made cost-optimization plan for the client — ultimately bringing his company close to NT$30 million in annual revenue.
One battle made him a legend. His salary leapt from a little over NT1 million a year. He drove a German SUV, had a long-term girlfriend in Taipei’s Xinyi District, and his personal motto was “stability above all.” When a college classmate invited him to co-found a sales business, he politely patted his friend on the shoulder and said, “Brother, I admire your courage, but starting a business is too risky. Look at me — my company is stable, I know the clients, my mortgage and car loan together run over NT$100,000 a month. I can’t gamble my whole life on it.”
Chapter One: The “Side Hustle” He Looked Down On Was the Real Moat
In Ajie’s department there was a younger colleague, Xiaopang, who was always watching online courses after work. One day Ajie walked past his desk and saw him learning Python. He casually asked, “What are you learning that for? We don’t even use it.” Xiaopang scratched his head sheepishly and said, “I just feel like learning a little more might come in handy someday.”
Ajie dismissed it in his mind, thinking Xiaopang was simply unfocused. Better to spend that time visiting two more clients than chasing these random skills — that was how real results got made. At internal training sessions he would even stand in front of new sales hires and say, “Take good care of your clients — that is the greatest security you will ever have.”
But what he didn’t expect was that the “side-hustle” Xiaopang he looked down on would, three years later, let him leap to a SaaS startup as a technical sales rep thanks to his self-taught coding skills — doubling his salary overnight and letting him work fully remote during the pandemic, completely unaffected. Ajie himself, however, received a letter that spring of his 35th year.
What you think is “stability” is actually strapping yourself to a chair that can be pulled out from under you at any moment.
Chapter Two: On Layoff Day, He Finally Saw How Fragile a System He Really Was
That day HR called him into a conference room and, in a tone completely devoid of emotion, told him that due to organizational restructuring, his position was being eliminated. The severance was the bare minimum required by the Labor Standards Act — one month’s notice-period wages plus a token compensation.
The afternoon Ajie walked out of that room, the weather in Taipei was beautiful, but he felt his entire world collapsing. He opened his contacts to look for his next job, only to discover that every connection he had built over the past decade came through a single business card stamped with the company logo. When that card became useless, he could no longer even articulate his own positioning in the industry.
What crushed him even more was the responses when he uploaded his resume to the 104 job bank — they were pitifully few. The three characters “35 years old” seemed to carry an original sin in the hiring market. A headhunter politely told him, “Your experience is very rich, but at this age our clients usually prefer candidates under 30.”
After a week of insomnia, Ajie finally admitted a truth he had long refused to face: He had bet his hopes on a single position, handed his sense of security to one boss, and equated his own value with a business card stamped with a company logo. This wasn’t hard work — this was outsourcing his fate to someone who could change his mind at any moment.
Chapter Three: After Being Laid Off, He Finally Saw the Deepest Illusion Among Office Workers
Out of work, Ajie began reviewing the path he had walked over the past decade. He realized that every one of his “peaks” had actually been his company’s peak, not his own. Those clients trusted him because he was that company’s ace salesman; those bosses valued him because he could bring in orders. The moment he left that seat, he was nothing.
Even more brutal was the realization that over the past ten years he had poured all his energy into “taking great care of clients” — yet never once considered turning those clients into his own network, transforming his service process into his own methodology, or converting his performance numbers into his own personal brand. He thought this was “dedication,” but from a systems view he had simply turned himself into a screw that couldn’t function once it was removed from the machine.
A real iron rice bowl isn’t a single position — it’s the fact that your abilities still find buyers in the open market.
Chapter Four: Reinventing Yourself After 35 Is About Learning to Be a “Person” Again
Ajie spent an entire year clawing his way out of the trough. He eventually did three things that completely flipped the second half of his life:
First, he turned ten years of client relationships from “company assets” into a “personal brand.” He launched a YouTube channel focused on industry observation, posting every week about real-world sales tactics and client management insights, transforming know-how that used to belong only to his company into his own influence.
Second, he broke his single income stream as an ace salesman into three legs: consulting + training + project work. No longer dependent on any single employer, he put his expertise directly on the market.
Third, he reviewed his ten-year client list and filtered out 30 people who genuinely trusted him, meeting each of them at least twice a year. These 30 people later became his earliest angel clients for a new venture.
When he was laid off at 35, he felt his life was over. Looking back at 40, he realized that layoff was the best letter he had ever received. It forced him to evolve from a “money-making machine” into a “person with his own business.”
Conclusion: Your Iron Rice Bowl Is Called “You”
The cruelest part of this story isn’t “earning six figures and still being laid off.” It’s that most of us are walking the exact same path Ajie did — betting our hopes on a single position, handing our sense of security to one boss, tying our own value to a single business card.
The next time you’re about to tell a colleague, “Why bother learning that? We don’t even use it,” remember: The ability you look down on today may become your life raft three years from now when you lose your job. A real iron rice bowl was never a company or a position — it is the fact that your abilities still find eager buyers in the open market.
Don’t let “stability” become your most expensive trap.
This article is an adapted story and a summary of viewpoints, for reference only. Every career transition comes with risk and opportunity cost — please evaluate according to your own situation and consult a career advisor when necessary.
Disclaimer: This article shares investment and financial concepts and summarizes data; it does not constitute any specific investment, tax, or legal advice. Markets carry risk; invest with caution. Please make independent judgments based on your own risk tolerance and consult a professional advisor.
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中年裁員, 35歲危機, 王牌業務, 職場轉型, Passive Income, 創業思維, 抗週期技能, 上班族警醒, 終身雇用, 職涯規劃
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