[unluky]

My "Dream Job" after 13 years was bought out by a public company. After about a month of accountants telling me the "customer first" approach we had used in that time to increase sales 6 fold (70 year old company) was not the right strategy and that watching costs was far more important - I turned in my notice. It shocked everyone and I had absolutely no job lined up or plans other than selling my house and moving back closer to where I grew up. I never minded living and breathing my job for 24/7, but that was because I loved it. This "accountants tell sales how to sell" was never going to work for me. I had also just lost my father, which really made me think about what I wanted out of life for some reason.

I gave 6 weeks notice (finished out the year) and my last week as the word got out - another company in the same town approached me. I knew they could not afford me (much smaller company) but I told them my free time was valuable to me now and we worked out what was going to be more of a short term consulting job with them with very loose hours and a commission based pay system with NO cap. I didn't have to sell my house or move - so why not?

3 years later I am still here, just had my 2nd most profitable year ever, and probably put in less time at the office than I have in 2-3 decades. When I do I wear jeans and sneaks to work (and take my dog in a lot) and love the freedom of a privately held company again. I work better fast and loose.

Sometimes you have to dive in the water to see what's in there. Life is more than climbing the corp ladder. Glad I did it, but glad I moved on too.