I said no.

Not because the deal was bad. Because my chest felt heavy on a Tuesday night.

Enterprise client. Guaranteed revenue. Multi-year commitment. The kind of deal that makes spreadsheets look beautiful and other founders jealous.

But I laid in bed one Tuesday night, and my chest felt heavy. That same feeling I used to get when I was an intern dreading Monday morning.

That feeling saved me from a massive mistake.

I need to be honest with you: I didn't discover this framework by being smart. I discovered it by being miserable.

Back when I was an intern, I'd spend Sunday nights in complete dread. Not the normal ‘big presentation tomorrow’ kind. The deeper kind. The ‘what the hell am I doing with my life’ kind.

I'd lie there thinking about Monday. About performing. About office politics I didn't understand. About doing work that didn't matter.

Nobody was guiding me. I was just executing tasks, playing a role, pretending I knew what I was doing. Everything felt like theater.

That's when I first felt it. That Sunday night dread. Your body telling you something is deeply wrong.

Fast forward to my quant trading startup.

Every morning I had to wake up early. Really early. Before market open. Like a Wall Street trader.

I fucking hated it.

Even when I was "living my dream" of building a company, I'd wake up thinking: "Is this actually what I want?"

We had the same meetings every day. Investment thesis. Trend following. Investment committee. Different day, same crap.

That's when I learned:

When you're actually extending yourself, every day brings new problems. You feel challenged, maybe exhausted, but never stuck in Groundhog Day.

I ignored that feeling for two years. Cost me $300K.

Should've listened to the dread.

I'm not special. Lots of people have felt this.

Joshua Fields Millburn left a six-figure corporate job. He wrote:

He did. Because he realized he wasn't living the Dream. He was living a lie.

Someone on Reddit quit their job and wrote:

Another person left a high-paying job:

One more:

These aren't weak people. These are people who realized money doesn't fix a fundamentally broken situation.

Back to that deal I turned down.

On paper: perfect. Guaranteed money. Brand name client. Multi-year security.

In reality: mandatory daily reports. Weekly meetings that felt like being on call. Our pay tied to metrics we couldn't fully control.

Plus their requirements were insane. Getting our IP whitelisted took three months. Nothing moved fast. I could see us getting screwed.

But before I saw any of that operationally, I felt it.

One random Tuesday night, I laid in bed and thought: ‘I'm an entrepreneur. Why do I feel like I'm about to work for someone else?’

That's when I realized the Sunday Night Test isn't about Sunday. It's about any time you're dreading tomorrow because of work.

I walked away from $3-5M because my chest felt heavy thinking about Monday morning.

Here's the thing about this test: it's not calendar-dependent.

If you're dreading tomorrow, that's your signal.

Not ‘I have a tough meeting’ dread. Not ‘big deadline’ stress.

I'm talking about that deep, aching feeling in your chest. That weight that tells you something fundamental is wrong.

I heard later that partnership went through three other vendors in 6 months. Each one burned out and quit. The requirements were impossible. Timeline unrealistic.

My Tuesday night dread was telling me what my spreadsheet couldn't see.

Not all dread means quit.

I work out. Yesterday I was destroyed from working out. Most exhausted I've been in weeks.

But I didn't feel dread. I felt tired but satisfied. Because deep down, I know it's good for my health.

Tired from growth feels different than dread from wrong work.

When you're doing the right thing, even when it's brutal, your heart knows. You feel challenged, exhausted maybe, but not that ache.

But when something is fundamentally wrong, your heart feels weird. Achy. Off.

That's when you listen.

Don't wait for Sunday. Do it today.

If you're below 5, write down exactly what's causing it. Not the surface reason (busy week, tough project). The real reason.

Is it:

Name it. Then you can change it.

Look, I get it. You have a mortgage. Kids. Student loans. You can't just walk away tomorrow.

That's fine. The Sunday Night Test isn't about quitting immediately. It's about acknowledging what's wrong.

Not "my job sucks." What exactly? Your manager? The commute? The meetings? The work itself? The lack of growth? Be specific.

Transfer departments? Renegotiate your role? Set boundaries? Sometimes you fix it from inside.

Save money. Build skills. Network. Line up options. You don't have to quit tomorrow, but you need to start moving.

I didn't quit my internship the day I felt Sunday dread. But I started planning. By the time I left, I had a path.

The test isn't about immediate action. It's about honest acknowledgment. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Then you do something about it.

Quant trading: Ignored it for two years. $300K gone.

Early partnerships: Ignored the signals. Cost me time and energy.

Every time I've ignored Sunday night dread, I've regretted it within 6-12 months.

Every time I've listened, I've dodged a bullet.

The framework works. But only if you actually use it.

Joshua Fields Millburn's essay "Why I Walked Away from My Six-Figure Career" hits different. He writes about how his mother died and his marriage ended in the same month. That's when he realized he wasn't living the Dream. He was living a lie.

Key line: Sometimes the most expensive thing you can do is stay in the wrong place.

Also found stories on Reddit of people who quit:

Not every story has a happy ending. But every person who left said they had to listen to that dread.

Score yourself 0-10. Be honest.

If you're below 5, write down the real reason. Not the bullshit surface reason you tell people. The actual reason.

Then ask yourself: What am I going to do about it?

Maybe it's the project. Maybe the partner. Maybe the whole company.

But you can't fix what you won't acknowledge.

P.S. The Sunday Night Test isn't about being happy all the time. I work my ass off. But when I lay down at night, that weight in my chest is gone.

If you still feel it, something needs to change.

Listen to your heart. It's trying to tell you something.

-George

P.P.S. Next week: $29/month to $10K/month in 90 days. The consulting-first playbook. No product required.