Its 7:30 Monday morning and I’m driving like a Mad Man in rush hour traffic to make an Eight O’clock meeting when I get a call on my Blackbury from a colleague. He asks for advice in how to participate in the upcoming meeting with our new regional manager. All I could say was “Keep your mouth shut”.

The company that I used to work for didn’t used to be that way, but it had become so political that it just wasn’t fun anymore.

I finally took an early retirement, which is a nice way to say that I was laid off. After 20 years I felt a bit of betrayal by the corporation and the fact that I was just one of 1200 that was let go that day wasn’t very consoling. But the truth was, I was stress out, burnt out and needed a break. I managed to save some money so I decided it was time to see a little of the world while I was still vertical so I spent a year doing some travel.

But if you have spent most of your life setting and trying to achieving goals, retirement gets a little boring after a while. I missed the satisfaction of getting up every morning and my feet hitting the floor knowing what I was going to do today to go forward.

Now, it’s better than ever, because no I have my own company and my own goals to achieve. It might be a small company but it’s growing and it’s profitable. No more going into a fit because of corporate idioacracy (I made that word up) and, having an internet marketing business appeals to me.

Some friends approached me after the layoff about going into business with them. That would mean large expenditures in a building and capital equipment. Talk about risk taking! Plus I would be chained to a rut job for many years. No, I had enough and I was ready for a change even though I hadn’t realized it at the time. Getting up every morning and going to my computer with a cup of homemade coffee, not out of a machine, is refreshing. And, if I want to go somewhere, I just take my computer with me. The boundaries are endless. Instead of being contained to a certain area, I can truly think global. I feel I have truly stepped out of the world of smoke stacks and into the new computer age.