I Wanna Retire!!

latetoschool
Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:29:34 +0000

VeryHappy, what you might want to consider is taking the steps now to get ready for the things you want to do later. Get the ball in play, so to speak. It’s worth it in the long run, and in my experience, it takes a very, very long time to transition from one sort of career to another - not necessarily financially but certainly psychologically.

Some years ago I intentionally got myself fired from my corporate position (merger, the two cultures were a disastrous mix and I hated it). I intentionally torpedoed a six figure position with full benefits, etc. - got the separation package. I wanted to quit very, very badly but forced myself to stick it out long enough to be terminated. The first year I floundered and almost caused a financial train wreck in our household. It took two-three years for me to become seriously launched as an entrepreneur, even though I had been studying, reading, evaluating and plotting and planning for YEARS.

It hasn’t been until the last 18 months or so that I was finally able get my brain to function in an entrepreneurial way - perhaps with some people the segue is faster, but with me, the psychological adjustment was much, much harder and took longer.

Today, I am finally, at long last, ridiculously happy. I can work from anywhere in the world I want to. I work when I want, sleep when I want, play when I want, and my benchmarks are seven figures, not six (haven’t made it yet but I can see the trend lines). The reality is that I do work a lot of 18 hour days - but it’s my call. But I went through some significant stress getting to this point…all self-inflicted…mostly because the psychological adjustment took so long. It seems that even when you intellectually “get” the major action steps and have everything working more or less correctly from an operational perspective, the mental/emotional perspective doesn’t seem to evolve or mature in lockstep.

Does that make sense? In any case, as it relates to your original question, if you are really wanting to do something else eventually, consider putting the framework in place now, in bits and pieces, so that it’s an easier process later (whenever your timeline for “later” happens to be). I am in my mid-40’s and think it will be another year or even two before I will be totally psychologically comfortable. Even so, I am already putting in the framework for what I will do in ten years - I envision that I will either be tired, or the business models with change, etc., so I need to have other options at the ready, and so am working on those things now (or at least trying to).