Why Do You Need a Boss?

For most of the last century, the deal was simple:

You give a company loyalty. They give you stability, mentorship, and a future.

That deal is gone, and it wasn’t workers who broke it.

Over the last few years, corporate behavior has delivered one unmistakable message: “You are replaceable.”

Mass layoffs via email. RTO mandates that ignore how people actually live now. Career ladders gutted because “AI can handle the junior work.” Organizations treating humans like line items while asking for devotion in return.

Meanwhile, something else was happening in the background—quietly, but unmistakably.

Corporate America spent years making people feel like commodities… while accidentally destroying the barrier to exit.

The tools they once hoarded—the infrastructure, the leverage, the distribution—are now out in the open for anyone to use.

And people noticed.

The Data: People Aren’t Just Changing Jobs. They’re Leaving the Model.

The entrepreneurship numbers tell the real story:

Pre-2020: ~300,000 new business applications per month (U.S. Census BFS).
2020–2025: 420,000–500,000 per month — a sustained 50% surge.
2021–2023: 16 million filings, the highest three-year stretch in U.S. history.
August 2025: 473,679 filings, including 170,000 high-propensity employer startups — the second-highest month ever recorded (U.S. Treasury / SBA / Technical.ly).

And it's not just filings — it’s intent:

79% of workers want to start a business or already have a side venture (SideHustles 2025).
Nearly 1 in 5 Gen Z and Millennials plan to leave their job to pursue entrepreneurship (GEM 2024–25).
76% of U.S. teens say they want to be entrepreneurs; social media influencers are tied for the #1 inspiration (Junior Achievement 2025).

The best people didn’t disappear.

They opted out.

The Broken Faith

COVID changed how people relate to work. Mass layoffs changed how they relate to stability. AI changed how they relate to leverage.

Then RTO mandates and the worst layoffs in decades became the final straw.

You can’t ask people to commute, conform, and sacrifice flexibility after they’ve already proven they can produce world-class work from anywhere.

You can’t gut mentorship, flatten career pathways, eliminate learning roles, and then complain that “no one is developing talent anymore.”

You can’t replace the apprenticeship layer with AI and then wonder why the next generation doesn’t want to climb a nonexistent ladder.

Corporate America, used to operating from a place of leverage, hasn’t realized that its tightening grip isn’t restoring control — it’s eroding the very faith in the model it depends on.

The New Math of Working for Yourself

The question at the center of all this is the simplest:

If you can find your own clients, build your own product,
serve your own audience,
and use AI as your force multiplier…
why do you need a boss?

This isn’t romantic idealism, it’s basic leverage math. And the data is clear: People are opting out.

Today:

Cloud infrastructure is virtually free at small scale.
AI gives one sharp operator the output of a team.
Platforms like Shopify, Substack, Fiverr, and Patreon handle distribution and monetization.
Social networks supply infinite optionality and reach.

Companies used to have all the power because they had all the tools. Now everyone has the tools. And the tools are getting better all the time.

And when the tools become essentially free, the gatekeepers lose their grip.

This Is Not a “Quit Your Job” Manifesto

Not everyone should become a founder. Not everyone wants that life.

But everyone deserves the clarity to see what's actually happening:

The corporate ladder has structurally collapsing at the bottom.
The middle is overloaded and burned out.
The top is increasingly disconnected from the lived reality of talent and their true value.
And the outside world now offers more stability, more creative control, and more opportunities for leverage than ever before.

The employer–employee relationship didn’t fail because people became disloyal. It failed because companies stopped being trustworthy stewards of people’s careers and their true value.

Workers received the message. And they are adapting accordingly.

A rising number are now answering the question:

“Why do I need a boss?”
with —
“I don’t.”

If you're navigating your own clarity questions — about work, leadership, or the path forward — you can always reach out.

The landscape is changing, and understanding it is the first leverage point.

I'd love to hear from you! Reach out or book a call.