Was doing some reflecting and it’s kinda dawned on me that, yes, I want to FIRE so I have more freedom to explore the world, but really, I just want to be protected if I’m ever fired again. I have a pretty healthy ego and have accomplished quite a bit, yet while thinking about my career, I’ve been fired from 8 different jobs. Of those 8, only one was deserved (the second one because I didn’t know what I was doing, and was faking it the whole time, while getting paid well—I was quite young too). Each termination caught me by surprise because I generally bring lots of value to the organizations I work for. In truth though, I thrive because I’m bold, but sometimes that works against me and I clash with people. The worst part has been, each time I was fired, I barely had savings to get me through. I’ve never been good with money and thought the goal was to spend it as quickly as you get it on whatever you want. Luckily, I’ve been good at finding new work, often that pays more and better. It wasn’t as traumatic when I was younger, because it was just me, but when I got married, I was fired from 3 jobs and it was devastating each time, I felt like a failure in front of the person I loved. MMM came along for me the year after I started my current job, and this is the longest I’ve worked anywhere and I moved up quickly. I’m still terrified of being fired, so I’m so focused on FIRE so that 1. I will survive if it happens again and not panic, and 2. I get out before they fire me. At this point though, it would be tough to actually fire me, unless I physically assaulted someone or stole something. However, I’m still scared. For me FIRE is safety, even more than freedom. That never occurred to me until today. I couldn’t be more grateful for discovering MMM and this community, helping to keep my demons at bay.