A Happy Retirement: A High Bar for High Achievers

“I had lost my ambition and with it my identity. Without CEO status, who was I? If I was not leading a company, what was my purpose? How would I find contentment without that all-encompassing fixation on achievement?”

The first morning of my retirement, I woke up without an alarm, sipped my coffee, read the newspaper, and panicked: Now what?

In a feeble attempt to create structure, I converted my middle son’s bedroom into a home office and spent the following days browsing the Internet for new business ideas. One overcast afternoon, in the midst of my mania, the Wi-Fi crashed. I unplugged the router, waited a few minutes, and plugged it back in. Nothing. Alarmed, I thought, without an information technology (IT) department or assistant how will I manage? And even worse—manage what?

During those first few months, I launched dozens of new businesses—in my head. I registered the name of my idea du jour, fantasized the rollout, and mulled over logistics and other details.

The idea of bringing a new venture to market gave me a rush; contemplating the actual implementation and execution killed the buzz.