I have spent 20 years in consulting and strategy — advising organizations on how to make better decisions under pressure.

At some point, I turned that same lens on myself.

The income was good. The career was progressing. And yet I could feel the options narrowing — not dramatically, but quietly. The kind of narrowing that only becomes obvious when a decision is forced on you.

I didn't want to wait for that moment.

So I built a framework. Not to escape — but to create enough optionality that I could stay by choice, not by necessity.

The Independence Map is the result of that work. It draws on two decades of strategic thinking, applied to the one problem most senior professionals never talk about openly:

What happens if Plan A stops working — and you have nothing else?

This workbook won't tell you to quit your job, start a business, or follow someone else's path. It will help you think clearly about your own — and build the structure that makes real options possible.

— The Independence Map