I’ve been gone from work for 4 years as of April Fool’s Day and even though 4/1 was more than three weeks ago, I never even reflected on the anniversary as it passed. In previous years, I’ve written a post to articulate how things are going, but I guess after this much time, early retirement has just become who I am.

Last Friday I had a quick return to corporate life when one of my old MegaCorp teams asked if I would share with some learnings on the key strategies that we used to dramatically grew the business more than 10 years ago, when I was ‘in charge’. As happens in big companies, the business seems to have lost its way and is looking at a ‘back to the future’ strategy.

I’ve done meetings like this a number of times with old businesses or managers over the last few years and it is fun to catch up on where the business is at and tell stories about ancient corporate battles won & lost in the marketplace. Because of CV19, we did the meeting via Zoom Conference, which is is the way that I’ve been doing Board meetings, as well.

I was surprised how easy it was to recall details from more than 10 years ago and they were very interested. It was great to think that some of the things we did on the business had stood the test of time. They had good questions and we wrapped up the meeting in about an hour.

While I enjoyed my working years – and enjoyed the call – I was happy to forget it all when we were done talking and leave it to them to gear up the team for new battles.

Afterward, I went for a sunny walk around our nearby lake and geared up for a tennis match with my brother. Four years after leaving work, goofing off is my new vocation. I often joke that “my turn running the world is over” and after catching up with the team, I have every confidence that MegaCorp continues to be in very good hands!

Image Credit: Zoom.com