By Jacob Zinkula
Publication Date: 2026-03-23 09:06:00
Last June, Taylor M. LaSane faced a decision she’d been weighing for years: whether to walk away from her six-figure salary at Google to go all in on the career coaching business she started three years earlier.
Google had just offered voluntary buyouts to some US-based employees, including those in the finance organization where she worked, positioning the program as an option for workers who didn’t feel “all in” on the company’s direction.
LaSane said her buyout offer included just under six months of severance pay. While the payout would help ease her transition to entrepreneurship, the risk was still significant. She said her income from the business was roughly 10% of what she earned at Google — and she had to weigh the financial implications for her husband and their twin toddlers.
Around this time, LaSane learned about the unexpected death of her uncle at the age of 62. She said he had recently retired and been looking forward to…
