What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?

For me, it was the day I walked away from corporate America and decided I was never going to work for someone else again.

I had a successful career. I worked my way up through retail management, eventually running the number-one district in the company. I made good money, had a good title, and by most people’s definition, I was successful.

But somewhere along the way I realized something: success and freedom aren’t necessarily the same thing.

I was 48 years old when I finally decided I had enough. I didn’t want someone else deciding when I worked, where I went, what goals I had to hit, or how much of my life belonged to the company. I wanted to find out what I could accomplish when I was working for myself.

So I left.

That was one of the scariest decisions I ever made, but it was also one of the most exciting. I bought and ran my own business, continued selling on eBay, invested in real estate, and started building something that belonged to me. If I succeeded, it was because of the decisions I made. If I failed, that was on me too.

And strangely enough, I liked that.

For the first time in a long time, Monday morning didn’t belong to somebody else.

I wasn’t waiting for a promotion, worrying about the next corporate reorganization, trying to impress a boss, or wondering whether somebody sitting in an office hundreds of miles away was going to make a decision that changed my life.

I was the boss.

Looking back, that decision changed much more than my career. It changed the way I looked at time.

Money can be made again. Businesses can be bought and sold. Houses can be bought and sold. But you don’t get another 48th year of your life.

Walking away taught me that sometimes the biggest risk isn’t leaving a secure job. The biggest risk is spending your entire life doing something you no longer want to do simply because you’re afraid to leave it.

That day I didn’t retire.

I took ownership of my life.

And that’s probably the moment I felt most alive.What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?

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