A Resilient Mission: Staying the Course to Retire at 47

Her story was that she would retire and hand her client list and business over to her son, whom she’d been grooming for the position. But, as I listened intently, I thought the son had no interest, and she didn’t appear to notice. I was curious for an update on the situation.

As it turned out, she was in panic mode because her son was going off to chef school. Behind her back, he’d applied and submitted the fees, giving her a couple of weeks’ notice.

“Can you believe that!?!”

I decided that she wasn’t actually asking me, so I frowned, patted her arm, and said, “I’m so sorry.”

I wasn’t sorry that I hadn’t shared my intuition and given her more forewarning. I was sorry that life wasn’t working out the way she wanted. For that, I was truly sorry.

I think everyone should have their dreams come true; that’s why I’ve written what I have and why I offer it for free.

Wishful Thinking and Other Invisible Traps

She’s not alone in getting blindsided by wishful thinking. The entire volume about Solving Problems is the relentless pursuit of fact, in the face of what we’d rather believe.

Executives have been trained on cold, hard analysis, yet they have tanked their companies, their results, or their careers instead of accepting reality.

In fact, those who believe themselves to be too intelligent for it to happen to them might be the most at risk. I’ve seen it happen time and again, just like this financial advisor who banked on her son’s obedience and now suddenly had no retirement plan.

“How do you do it?” she asked me, referring to how I make ends meet without working, which is my definition of retirement.

“I live off my dividends.”

“I love that answer,” she said.

Actually, I live off of less than that, so that my principal continues to grow. I figure, why not while I can? I drive a rusty twenty-year-old vehicle, but why not, while I can. I’ve wasted enough money on clothes, makeup, jewelry, and other consumables to impress others or fit in, and I am lucky enough to declare “Enough.”

I wondered who would get financial advice from someone in dire financial straits. Inauthenticity makes selling very difficult, if not impossible. In a world where I was supposed to be giving business advice, why did authenticity go unaddressed so often?

For me personally, inauthenticity made the sheer act of living very difficult.

Managing Impressions and Other Maladaptive Solutions

Many people can offer financial, career, and lifestyle advice, but when it came to authenticity, I found that there was too much celebration of conforming to an ideal rather than embracing what actually works for human beings and the human race.

We can’t all be Barbie, in fact, even Margot Robbie doesn’t fit the mould. No one does, yet, as we all strive for the ideal, we buy hair products and more. In business, you are supposed to be the rock-solid, confidently poised and polished Superman in a suit.

Anything less, and they will tell you about the importance of managing impressions.
I got to the point in life that I wanted to punch someone out, because I’d never look the part, and I was done trying. I was sick of the constant feedback about my body, hair and clothes.

Instead of succumbing to the low bar of automatically judging people by their covers, why couldn’t we simply teach people to rise above their visual impressions and use their consciousness? Too much work?

Well, I was up for it.

When I posted a video explaining cognitive biases, the first 100 people commented on my appearance in some way. No one commented on any of my words. I shared this fact with one of my friends who’d done just that, and she blushed with shame.

I took the video down.

I think it’s about time we rise above our propensity to judge people by their appearance. It’s not good enough for books, and people contain multitudes. This is just one example of cognitive biases at work – a trumpet to the call to rise above them.

Cognitive Biases and Other Predictable Errors

My partner finally asked me what I write about.

After five years, I finally had an answer.

I said, “I write about overcoming cognitive biases, but no one knows what they are, and one of them is that everyone thinks they are immune. However, that belief is sure to drive you into a brick wall, stunned that it happened, but it did, so I write about resilience, because that’s the open door where I can say, yep, it messed up, but it wasn’t you, it was cognitive biases. Want to crush them?”

That’s my mission, more than helping you retire.

If I had a job where I felt appreciated and where I was growing with control over the pace and direction, surrounded by people who supported me while accomplishing good in the world, I’d still be working.

Until then, I’m doing it unpaid, alone, for the love and purpose of it. Now, that’s what I call retirement, and I’ve been happily at it for quite a few years now.

Want to join me? Over on Substack, I’m sharing Five Reasons I Was Able to Retire at 47.

I think I actually retired at 44, because I spent three years marketing myself as a consultant while deftly avoiding getting hired. Instead, I worked on the ideas and frameworks that I am lucky to share with you now, as if it were a full-time job.

When the pandemic hit, I had decided to share my work, not as training, coaching, or online courses as is now the fad, but the old-school way—through the written word. And so, when the speaking gigs stopped because the world stopped, it was perfect timing to stop the charade and the perfect opportunity to start writing.