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Keep Firing Yourself (Part 2)

by Hannes Oosthuizen

Last updated 18 Jul 2025

Keep Firing Yourself (Part 2)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:
The goal isn’t to vanish from your company.
It’s to make sure it doesn’t vanish without you.

A while back, I wrote about firing myself.
From design. From dev. From project admin. From operations.
I handed off responsibility one by one, until I finally stepped into what a CEO should actually be doing: thinking long-term, building systems, and creating leverage.

That article marked a major turning point.
But what I didn’t expect... was that I’d need to do it all over again.

Not from the same roles.
But from the new ones that naturally crept in.

The reality of running a fast-growing company is this:
The second you create space, new demands rush in to fill it.
And before you know it, you're back on calls, back in the weeds, back defaulting to “I’ll just handle it.”

So I’ve kept firing myself.
And now, I’m finally reaching the end of the line.

This Time, It’s the Big One

In the past few months, something wild has happened.
The business has started running, and growing, almost entirely without me.

Client relationships are strong.
Internal systems are ticking.
Output keeps increasing.
Team cohesion is at an all-time high.

And most importantly:
The feedback loops work.

The people running the company want to make it better.
They don’t wait for me to weigh in.
They look for inefficiencies, bring forward solutions, and action things at speed.

So I’m putting it to the test.

I recently sent the team a bit of a bombshell email.
The short version?
I’m removing myself from the company. In phases.

Not permanently. Not yet.
But for set periods of time, over the next few months, I’ll be fully offline.
No messages. No meetings. No “just checking in.”

This isn’t a vacation. It’s a stress test.

The goal is to validate:
Can the company operate, grow, and evolve... without the founder?

Because if the answer is yes, then I’ve done my job.

Why It Matters

Let’s be real: it’s easy to “build a team” when you’re still secretly the bottleneck.
You feel good delegating, but deep down, you know the wheels come off the moment you step out of frame.

That’s not a team. That’s founder dependency dressed in startup chic.

So I’ve been ruthless about removing myself from every function where I’m no longer the highest-leverage person for the job.
Strategy, execution, even culture… all handed over to people who now run those lanes better than I ever could.

And guess what?
We’re still growing.
Faster than ever, actually.

So now, I’m stress-testing the final phase:
Me.

What Happens Next

While these tests are running, I’ll be focusing on something new… a sister company to Nexubis. A brand-new venture, co-founded with someone on our current team.

It's called XEN Studio.
And no, it’s not a competitor. It’s an extension of our ecosystem.

The benefit?
It lets us explore new markets, new offerings, and new partnerships... all while strengthening the mothership.
Same quality, same values… just a different angle.

We’ll share resources. We’ll share insights.
And eventually, we’ll share revenue.
This isn’t a solo act. It’s a network play.

Because if you can build one thing well, you can build many.
But only if the first thing runs without you.

Final Thought

In a few months, I’ll probably write Part 3 of this series.
Because odds are, I’ll have found more things to fire myself from.

But for now, here’s where I leave it:

Letting go isn’t a luxury… it’s a skill.
Scaling isn’t about clinging tighter, it’s about trusting smarter.
And the only way to know if your business can run without you...
Is to leave it and see.

So keep building.
Keep training.
Keep removing yourself from the things you’ve outgrown.

Keep firing yourself.

That’s how you grow.
That’s how you make space.
And most importantly… that’s how you make room for what’s next.

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