Eight Months Later He Was Unrecognizable
This is what waiting costs.
I was working in HR when he walked through the door with braces on both legs and his wife at his elbow.
I knew his name before I looked up. What I wasn't ready for was his face.
Eight months ago we had let him go. Forced him out, honestly. His department had been making excuses for him for years and eventually the excuses ran out. He was a curmudgeon on his best days and by the end nobody was sad to see him go, including me.
But there he was. Needing help with Medicare forms. Unable to walk unassisted. We went into a private conference room and I heard the rest of the story. Stroke before his 70th birthday. Heart attack not long after. Largely immobile.
Eight months.
His excuses ran out before his body did, but just barely. In that room sat a broken man who was too sick to be mean. We wrapped up our business and they left. I decided in that moment that my short life would be spent on the next great adventure, not waiting for some dangling carrot or the grim reaper.
No more holding on. No more biting my tongue, and pretending not to see what I saw or know what I knew.
The storm doesn't wait until you've got your ducks in a row. And neither does your health.
I started planning my own exit strategy for early retirement that very afternoon.
Tomorrow I'll tell you what I learned and how I calculated what it would cost me to stay or go on their timeline or mine.
How long have you been waiting? And what exactly are you waiting for?