I have had two 9to5 jobs. In the first, at a big company where everything ran on systems, I was totally replaceable. In the second, at a startup where I owned everything, I was hard to replace.

So, how do you become irreplaceable at work? You become irreplaceable when replacing you would cost the company more than saying yes to you. You get there in layers: first use modern tools to make your assigned work stand out, then take on harder problems and solve them better than most people can.

(My book, Quit 9to5, comes out in January 2027. Join the Quit 9to5 waitlist to hear when it's out.)

Because there are many people who can do the same work.

Every job sits in a market of supply and demand. A cab app has a huge supply of drivers, so it can replace any one of them quickly and it sets the terms. A consultant who solves a problem few people can is slow and expensive to replace, so the consultant can ask for higher pay, part-time work or flexible leave.

Most salaried people sit closer to the driver. Colleges produce graduates with similar degrees in bulk, so the degree alone puts you on the supply side. That's why so many professionals stay stuck with small increments and slow promotions.

So what does it take to move to the other side?

It means you are expensive to replace. You don't have to be the only person on the planet who can do your job.

When you ask for something, your company weighs the effort, time and money of finding someone who creates as much value as you against the cost of agreeing. When the first is bigger, you're irreplaceable.

That happens when demand for the value you create is high and the supply of people who can create it is low. In my upcoming book, Quit 9to5, I break this into two paths: solve problems so complex that few people can, or create solutions so good that you outperform most people who solve the same problem.

Both paths sound like they need the freedom to pick your work. They don't, at least at the start.

Start with whatever you've been assigned, and find the latest tools that multiply your output on it.

For me, those tools were Meta Ads, AI, anything digital, even Google Sheets. Once, I taught an employee the basics of Meta Ads in 6 hours. That was enough to replace an agency that charged ₹1,50,000 a month.

This is the first layer of being hard to replace. When your output on ordinary work is clearly better, people notice, and you earn the right to claim new projects. Being able to choose your projects is itself a result of being irreplaceable, so you have to begin with what you have.

If your workplace is so rigid that even this is impossible, change jobs.

Once your everyday work stands out, the next step is harder problems.

Because the harder the problem, the fewer people who can solve it.

A problem is a gap between where things are and where you want them to be. Some gaps are small, like washing dishes. Others are huge, like raising a company's profit. A complex problem breaks into many smaller problems that depend on each other. It changes as you work on it, the feedback comes late, money and time are limited, and people with their own motives are involved.

Each extra layer shrinks the pool of people who can handle it. The person who can is hard to replace.

But nobody hands you a hard problem on your first day.

You earn them through three things: capability, credibility and context.

Capability means you can create good solutions. Credibility means you have results that prove it. Context means you understand a place's people, culture and history.

Here's how that worked for me. I worked with a school as a consultant and doubled their new admissions in a single year. That result gave me the credibility for a much bigger problem: I was offered, and took, a P&L consulting role to grow the school's profit. Since then, its operating profit has grown many times over.

There were other consultants with similar skills. I got the role because I had context too. That context works like a moat: an outside hire would need months, if not years, to catch up.

Getting a bigger problem is half the job. The other half is how well you solve it.

A better solution scores higher on four things: it's effective, efficient, consistent and scalable.

Say two people at a school must raise new admissions from 400 to 500 in a year.

The person whose solution scores higher on all four becomes the scarce one.

None of this comes free.

It takes hard work, and that's the only warning I have.

You'll have to put in hours to learn new skills, because you're trying to move faster than the average person, toward excellence.

It's worth it. Deep down, every human craves excellence. The trade-offs are very positive, and the hard work is small compared with the rewards and the feeling of having enough.

So what are those rewards?

It lets you set the terms of your work.

You can ask for better pay, flexible hours or part-time work, and the company is likely to agree. You get to choose your projects. For me, it went further. Because I created a lot of value at the startup and later as a consultant, I could earn my income back after I quit. My employer even became my first client.

Rare skills are also what make leaving safe. They're one of the checks in Should You Quit Your Job Without Another Offer? And if you're unsure whether your current job deserves this effort, Is Your Job Even Worth It? helps you check.

If you want the full framework, join the Quit 9to5 waitlist.

Thought exercise: If you aren't irreplaceable yet, look around your organisation. Who is hard to replace? Write down how much freedom, autonomy and money they have compared with you. Then write down the one tool or problem that could start moving you toward their side.

Want to set the terms of your work?

I've put everything I know into first-principles frameworks in Quit 9to5, my book coming out in January 2027: how to build your runway and walk out of salaried work when you choose.

Join the Quit 9to5 waitlist so you don't miss the launch.