The skill nobody teaches you: I've had to learn it three times.

Hi {{ first_name | friend}},

Last week I wrote about deleting social media apps from my phone. The response surprised me. Many of you replied saying you've been thinking about doing the same thing.

This week, I want to talk about something harder: starting from scratch.

I started in academia. Then I spent almost 10 years in the humanitarian sector, working with NGOs. Last year, I switched to the private sector.

Three careers. Three fresh starts. Three times I had to figure out who I was again.

The last switch was the hardest. Not because the work was harder, but because I didn't choose it. Funding dried up across the sector. Projects closed. I had to leave work I cared about deeply.

But I'll be honest: a few things made my transition easier than it could have been.

First, I had a brief experience in the private sector early in my career. It wasn't long, but it meant this world wasn't completely foreign to me.

Second, my actual work didn't change that much. I'm still a trainer. I work on similar topics, similar policies. The context shifted, but the core of what I do stayed the same.

Third, and maybe most importantly: I had been writing online for years. Newsletters, social media, digital content. It started as a side project, but it gave me an online presence, a network outside my sector, and a way of thinking about work that wasn't tied to one employer or one industry.

I wasn't just "the humanitarian guy." I was also the guy who writes about productivity, who experiments with tools, who shares what he's learning. That mattered more than I realized.

Here's what I've learned: starting over is a skill. And like any skill, it gets easier with practice. But not because it hurts less. It gets easier because you start to trust yourself more.

When I left the humanitarian sector, I didn't just lose a job. I lost a piece of who I was.

For years, I introduced myself as someone who works in humanitarian response. It was more than a job title. It was an identity.

And that's the trap.

If you build your entire sense of self around one role, one job, one label, you're one restructuring away from an identity crisis.

I've been reading Big Trust by Dr Shadé Zahrai, and she talks about this: the importance of having multiple identities. Not as a backup plan, but as a fuller picture of who you actually are.

One line from the book stuck with me: "You can't outperform self-doubt, but you can rewire it."

That's what multiple identities do. They rewire how you see yourself. When one part of your life falls apart, you don't fall apart with it.

These days, when someone asks what I do, I have options:

I'm a dad. I'm a trainer. I'm an AI enthusiast. I'm a newsletter writer. I'm a runner.

None of these define me completely. All of them are true.

If you're in a transition right now, or feeling one coming, here's what helped me:

Read. Business books, self-development, biographies of people who reinvented themselves. It won't give you answers, but it will give you perspective.

Find mentors. Not formal ones necessarily. Just people a few steps ahead who are willing to answer your questions. I've learned more from a few honest conversations than from any course.

Build your support network. Family, friends, former colleagues. The people who knew you before your job title and will know you after. Lean on them.

Build strong professional relationships. Not just to "know someone," but to have people who can genuinely speak to your work. Director-level references from different organizations carry weight. When hiring managers see names they recognize and trust, it tells them something about you before you even walk in the room.

Get affiliated with respected organizations in your field. I was working with Humanitarian Leadership Academy, and through them I got the chance to do a coaching course with Coach Mentoring. That affiliation matters. If you're a graduate of a known program, or connected to institutions people recognize, it gives others a shortcut to understanding your background. They know what you've been through, what standards you've met.

Get professional support if you can. Therapy, coaching, mentorship programs. If you have access, use it. If you don't, start with one person you trust.

Develop multiple identities. Don't wait for a crisis to figure out who you are outside of work. Start a hobby. Write something. Join a community. Give yourself more than one answer to the question "what do you do?"

With AI changing how we work, I think starting from scratch will become a common experience, not a rare one.

The idea of one career, one company, one path until retirement is already fading. Most of us will pivot multiple times. Some by choice, some by circumstance.

The question isn't whether you'll have to start over. It's whether you'll be ready when it happens.

I want to be clear about something.

I'm not fully sorted out. Not even close. I still have days where I question if I made the right call. Areas of my life that feel messy. Things I haven't figured out.

No one has it all together. No one.

Please don't read this newsletter as "you need to be resilient" or "you need to have multiple identities" or "you need to do what I did." That's not the point.

The point is: if you're struggling with a transition right now, you're not alone. If it feels hard, that's because it is hard. And if you're worried you're not handling it well enough, I promise you, most of us feel the same way.

We're all figuring it out as we go.

A few things I'm planning to write about:

Have you ever had to start from scratch? A career change, a move, a reinvention?

I'd love to hear your story. What helped you through it? What do you wish you'd known?

Just hit reply. I read everything.

See you next Tuesday,

Selim

🌐 selimuysal.net

P.S. If you're curious about digital writing or want to start your own newsletter, whether for your business or just for yourself, I'm happy to help. Just reply to this email and let's talk.

P.P.S. I mentioned reading helps during transitions. If you're looking for book recommendations or want to build better habits, check out books.dailyhabits.blog and dailyhabits.blog. Small habits, done consistently, change everything.

P.P.P.S. I mentioned digital writing helped me during my transitions. Ship30 is the program where I learned how to write online and how to make money from my writing. Now Nicolas Cole and Dickie Bush are running a 3-day live challenge (Feb 17-19) on landing writing clients. If you're curious about turning writing into income, check it out: Get Writing Clients Challenge (Currently $59, price goes up soon.)