So Far Early Retirement Rocks

Wow. I can't stop smiling. I hadn't expected this. This vacation feeling. Only better than vacation because there's no looming end-of-vacation deadline with a list of stuff I must get done before then.

Between you and me, I thought it was going to be more like a full blown panic attack. You know, the whole, Oh My God What Have I Done?! full throttle throat-closing, wide eyed, silent scream thing. I thought I'd wake up in the morning and not have any job to do and then I'd stare at the ceiling full of anxiety about what to do to fill the day.

I always was a bit of a workaholic. I was the nerd in the cube down the hall who won 'Employee of the Month' so often it got boring for everyone else. Later when I founded my own company, I routinely worked 15 hour days. It was a strain when I got married in my early 40s to cope with my husband's demands that I not work all weekends. (Sometimes I hid my computer the way other spouses hide forbidden cigarettes.)

I worried the shock of going from full-throttle company-owner to a retired person would be incredibly harsh. Luckily the whole process takes so much longer than I estimated, that it's a softer landing...
Step 1. Gearing up to sell my company - one-two years.
Step 2. Bidder evaluation and negotiations - three-four months
Step 3. Due diligence and legal stuff - 6-7 months
Step 4. Hands-on daily working with new President 4-months
Step 5. Moving to home office but still working fulltime - one year
Step 6. On call fulltime if needed, plus lighter weekly duties - 6 months
Step 7. RETIRED!

When I woke up on day one of Step 7, I was expecting two things -- a hangover and an anxiety attack. Only got the first.

Otherwise this is incredibly relaxing.

73,920,000 Words After I Started My 3rd Company*... It's Time to Begin at Word #1 Again

73 million! MarketingSherpa's Research Director Stefan Tornquist announced that total in a private speech he gave at my retirement party last Friday night. He calculated, using his mighty statistical brain, that's how many words I'd written as the Editor in Chief of MarketingSherpa in Columns, Case Studies, blogs, Handbooks, Benchmark Guides, speeches, etc., since I launched the company in 2000.

Which is not to say we didn't have a pretty good editorial team replete with reporters and whatnot all also pouring content in. It's just that I ended up writing a lot. Somehow I always do.

When I signed the final papers to sell Sherpa to the folks at MECLabs, the accountant looked up and said, "Well I look forward to helping you with your next company." Which surprised me a lot because I hadn't ever talked about anything else. He said, 'Anne, there's not a chance you won't start something new. You're serial. It will happen."

But for now I really am truly taking a break. Except for a little writing now and then. I can't help it.

By the way - wanna know the cool thing about that 73 million? I did it all with 3 fingers. Never learned how to type properly. Just goes to show you can accomplish anything you set your mind to even if you are a dislexic, terrible-typist.

* Companies one and two were Connecticut College Cleaning Service cleaning my professors' houses in the 1980s and Independent Expert, helping brands such as The Economist and the FatBrain division of Barnes & Noble figure out what to do on the Internet, way back in the 90s.