I Got Laid Off in Tech. Three Weeks Later, I Was an Amazon Bestselling Author.

Michael Uboh was caught in a wave of tech industry layoffs. Three weeks later, he was an Amazon Bestselling author. The gap between those two moments centers on a single choice: scarcity or abundance. 

From Layoff to Bestseller

For months, Uboh had been quietly working on a rhyming picture book about generosity. Writing under the pen name A.M. Uboh, he wanted to create something that taught children a lesson most adults never fully learn. The manuscript was already well underway when the layoff arrived. It did not begin the book, but it gave him the time, urgency, and clarity to finish what he had been building.

“I’d been working on Benji for months, but the layoff removed the excuse to delay finishing it,” he recalls. The uncertainty could have frozen him. Instead, it freed him.

He faced two competing voices. One urged caution. “When the moment came, scarcity thinking said shelve the book and play it safe,” Uboh explains. The other pointed toward possibility. “Abundance said I already had what I needed to finish it. I chose abundance, and three weeks later the results agreed with me.”

On June 30, 2026, he published Benji the Abundance Bunny independently under his own imprint, Crowned Crane House. Within three days of launch, the book reached Amazon Bestseller status. The achievement was not the result of writing an entire book in three weeks. It came after months of development, followed by a concentrated period in which Uboh completed and released the manuscript after the layoff.

The fastest-moving part of the experience ultimately reinforced the same lesson the book teaches children: operating from abundance instead of scarcity can change what someone believes is possible.

A Book That Goes Deeper Than Sharing

Most children’s books teach kids to share. Benji the Abundance Bunny goes further. Written for children ages four to eight, the rhyming picture book teaches abundance mindset, the belief that there is enough for everyone and that giving actually grows your world rather than shrinking it.

That distinction matters. Sharing asks a child to give something up. Abundance invites a child to see giving as a way to expand their world. The more you give, the more your world grows. It is a subtle shift, but it reshapes how a young mind understands generosity, relationships, and possibility.

This is why the book resonates across audiences that rarely overlap. Parents appreciate the warmth and the values. Educators value the emotional intelligence woven through the pages. Readers drawn to personal development recognize a concept they have spent years trying to internalize as adults, presented here in a way a five-year-old can grasp.

By bridging children’s literature and personal development, Uboh created something few picture books attempt. It speaks to the child on the reading rug and the parent turning the pages, and it does so without lecturing either one.

Why Abundance, Why Now

Uboh’s mission reaches beyond a single title. His conviction grew from a pattern he kept noticing in the adults around him.

“I kept meeting adults stuck in scarcity thinking, and I realized: if we want a generation that believes there’s enough for everyone, we have to plant that belief before it hardens into doubt,” he says.

That sentence captures the heart of the entire brand. Scarcity thinking is not something people are born with. It is learned, reinforced, and eventually hardened into a default. Uboh believes the antidote must be planted early, before doubt takes root. A picture book, read again and again at bedtime, becomes a quiet vehicle for a belief that can shape a lifetime.

The timing feels deliberate. In an age when scarcity dominates headlines, workplaces, and even childhood, a story about having enough and growing through generosity offers something rare. It offers hope, framed in language a child can carry into adulthood.

Building a Franchise, Not Just a Book

Uboh is both an author and a founder, and his ambition extends well past one title. He is building Benji into a full children’s media franchise called Benji and The Abundance Crew.

The vision spans a growing book series, animated content, and educational resources, all designed to teach emotional intelligence and abundance mindset to the next generation. Crowned Crane House, the independent imprint he created, serves as the foundation for that expansion.

Both names are important to the story. A.M. Uboh carries the literary identity associated with the book, while Michael Uboh anchors the entrepreneurial journey behind Crowned Crane House and the wider franchise. Featuring both names also keeps the author and founder connected in the public record, making his work easier to find across publishing and business contexts.

There is proof of concept in the launch itself. A values-driven story, built from scratch and published independently, found an audience quickly. As Uboh puts it, hitting Amazon Bestseller status within three days was “proof that a values-driven story built from scratch can compete and win.”

That independence is part of the story’s power. Uboh did not wait for permission from a traditional publisher. He built the house, wrote the book, and trusted the message. In doing so, he modeled the very mindset he hopes to teach children: you often already have what you need to begin.

The Human Center of the Story

What lingers about Michael Uboh’s journey is not the bestseller badge. It is the choice underneath it. In a moment of genuine personal uncertainty, when the safe path was to wait, he decided to move forward on the belief that there was enough.

That decision turned a professional setback into a creative breakthrough. It also gave his work an authenticity that cannot be manufactured. Uboh is not teaching abundance from a comfortable distance. He lived the lesson in real time, under real pressure, and the book carries that truth on every page.

For parents raising children in an anxious age, for educators searching for tools that build emotional intelligence, and for anyone drawn to the language of mindset and growth, Benji the Abundance Bunny arrives as both a story and an invitation. It asks a simple question with lasting weight: what becomes possible when a child learns, early, that there is enough for everyone?

Michael Uboh, writing as A.M. Uboh, has built his answer into a bunny, a book, and a growing world of characters. The next generation, he believes, deserves to grow up hearing it.

Connect with Benji the Abundance Bunny on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, or find the book on Amazon.