Find Your Inner Rebel
What it is, who it's for, and why I wrote it.
There’s a specific kind of clarity that comes from getting knocked down. Then getting up again. The kind of events where the rug goes out from under you, and you’re standing there trying to figure out what just happened. I’ve been there.
What I noticed, each time, was that the professionals who recovered fastest weren’t the ones with the best resumes or the most connections. They were the ones who refused to accept the narrative that they were done — they dusted off and kept going. Some did it deliberately. Most did it on instinct. But the pattern was always the same. Here’s my formula:
Resistance + Resilience = Reinvention
After three decades of punching it out in Silicon Valley, here’s what I know: You don’t advance through your career by playing it safe or asking for permission. You do it by refusing to conform (resistance), surviving the fallout (resilience), and building upon every experience (reinvention).
That’s the premise of my upcoming book, Find Your Inner Rebel: Use the Power of Resistance and Resilience to Fuel Your Career Reinvention, launching Summer 2026.
If you’re mid-career and stuck — uncertain if your current job is still the right fit, recovering from a layoff, or nodding along while silently panicking — this is for you. Maybe you’re ready to do something completely different. I wrote it because I’ve been where you are, and I found my own way through. More than once.
You should know that this book is not an instruction manual. It’s a credo. The difference matters. A credo tells you how to think—how to fight. There’s a playlist of The Clash running through the whole thing. Each chapter is named after a song that provides the sonic vibe. They, and other artists central to the punk rock movement that sparked a cultural revolution, gave us songs about defying the status quo, absorbing the blows of adversity, and making something out of nothing. Turns out that describes the only strategy that works over the long haul.
My conspiracy board mind also connects more consequential, cooler people than me — and my own snarky career tales — to your new Three Rs. And yes, there’s psychology, sociology, and science-y stuff to back it all up, too.
I organized the book in three parts:
Part 1 - Resistance: Identity, rejection of norms, and defiance of the status quo — how your interests can guide your direction, how to rely on yourself, and how to be deliberate in setting long-term goals.
Part 2 - Resilience: Overcoming adversity, being adaptable, and holding the line under pressure — how to lean on yourself and others when the road gets rough, regulate the emotions that will otherwise wreck you, and stay flexible enough to find a path forward.
Part 3 - Reinvention: How the combination of resistance and resilience fuels reinvention. It’s the formula for transformation — and it comes with a heavy dose of optimism. The belief that you can do more, be more.
This newsletter is where I’ll share real stories from my three decades in Silicon Valley, research that actually holds up, and anecdotes from rebels and underdogs that I’ve admired. Plus hot takes on the world of work, and the occasional story that didn’t make it in. No schedule for the sake of a schedule — if it’s in your inbox, it earned its way there.
The book launches Summer 2026. Until then — stick around.
— Kevin Flores