shom on Nostr: as always wonderful responses. Honestly, walking away from money was not that hard; I ...

as always wonderful responses. Honestly, walking away from money was not that hard; I mean, it's not great but it definitely wasn't worth it to me already. I would have walked away much sooner if it wasn't for immigration status (finally got a green card after 20 years of being in the US).

A couple years after the company was acquired by private equity, the vibes were always going from bad to worse. I did take the privilege of nurturing the team very seriously (too seriously at the cost of my own well being) but in that pressure cooker it turned into protecting not nurturing the team and that took a toll on my whole mentoring approach. While I was protecting the team from the corporate pressure, I was really just transforming it into pressure from me. My standards became more directly exacting and as much as I wanted to I wasn't able to provide enough room and time for failure and growth. I wish I had sensed that sooner; and despite former teammates still telling me that it was one the best learning cultures they were a part of, it used to be even better, that's hard to go back on.

It also took a toll on my identity and I am really glad that when I finally could walk away and my options for staying there were be a corporate slimy VP or facilitate weapons systems engineering I was able to say "no, thanks". I guess that was more along the lines of 50% pay cut had I taken those options but as kaizer said, it was more important to be able to live with myself. The money would have been nice and maybe allowed me to forge my own path in 5 years but we're not guaranteed that time and I wanted to live with myself. I don't think this was radical/brave but do think more people need to hear that these are valid choices one can make.