I watched my dad get serious about his retirement planning when I was in middle school and started plotting my own escape shortly thereafter at around 16 or so. Initial plans included things like skipping college, working unskilled long enough to save up $30k, invest it, spending the next 30 years knocking around fishing and hunting on a shoe string then coming back to a million dollar portfolio. I was halfway there when I graduated highschool with $15k in the stache. When it came down to it, my dad bribed me to go to college (in a mountain town) by buying us a 870 Remington 12 guage (shared, as many of our firearms are).
During my college years I decided I wasn't happy adventuring alone and needed a partner to share my travels with. As it turns out, most potential prospects were not interested in living off of wild game, which led me to explore other means of support until FI. Enter corporate servitude. I knew from day one that working for someone else was not for me, but passive income alone could maintain an adequate lifestyle for the Mrs. while giving me my freedom. We hit "technical" barebones FI last summer, 11 years in, and will hopefully FIRE next April with right at 12.5 years of dress shirts, ties, and corporate mumbo jumbo.