I'm in! Or is it I'm out!
I've been an occasional poster, often lurker, slowly working my way there.
The story of getting here is long, 20+ years, and feels so immediate and so distant at the same time. The sense of freedom though as I emerge from it is such that time feels compressed - it couldn't possibly have been 20y. There's so much in there that I love but it went far too fast. I'm hoping, believing, that more time and more freedom to challenge myself, to be excited to by where I am, doing what I am, with my family and friends, will slow time... let me revel in it a bit and pivot to something totally different. I can't pause time but I sure hope I can slow it in a way that the last 20y haven't allowed.
Tonight I sat with a friend on a rather different path, one that I've often admired and known for 25 years now, with whom my family and hers planned on taking an epic trip together this summer that coincided with my retirement from career work. This isn't the summer I anticipated but the disruption of plans has allowed my wife and me to connect with and do things that are more important and, in some important ways, more inline with our values. We've discovered we can do more than we imagined in our young sons education, we can be better spouses, we can navigate complex life changes. I wish the context weren't a pandemic where we know friends and family that are suffering but I can't deny that we've found a lot of good in this moment.
I sat in a college class about 20 years ago and recall plotting a 10y goal that allowed me flexibility (not FIRE levels) at age 30. I achieved that goal but kept going. In 2016, travelling with friends in Mexico City, I read an article in a copy of the Atlantic they brought about MMM. Not long after another friend of a friend connected me to this community. We'd done a lot right before then but really doubled down. It's taken 4y but we've bought and renovated the house we love, re-visited the trajectory we were on and honed in a little more specifically and to things we cared about, and unloaded my business in a way where I can hold my head high - my business partner taken care of, my new partners having understood the situation despite it likely minimizing my value, all our customers taken care of, and all but 1 employee taken forward from my old company into the new one.
It's been 4y of solid work, arguably 20y+, and I'm so thrilled to be done with that segment and see what comes next - what I and my family make of this gift we have. I'm so appreciative of what this community has offered in inspiration and knowledge.
Thank you all!
PS - I noticed the list of those exiting. My date is officially Sep 30 but I've been winding down for the last year. My partners know the exit plan is in place and I talked to my first key employee about a week ago. 3 mos to go. I'm in a good place and think I've left those that rely on me in a good place. It's bittersweet but mostly sweet.