What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

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What’s the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

I have never been a very spontaneous person. Probably the most spontaneous thing I ever did was quit a job when I was, I think, 22 to start a painting business with someone I thought was a friend.

This was not like somebody raising a family or leaving a great job. My technology career had not really started yet. He had been laid off, and I felt bad for him. We had some connections and several houses lined up, so it was a business we thought we could try.

Unfortunately, I had to have one of my knee surgeries and needed to stop painting for a few weeks. While I was recovering, he took all the gear and decided to go it alone.

That is a horrible trait in a person, but the silver lining was that I went back to corporate America and started my technology journey, which provided a decent living and a very good career.

This was one of those school-of-hard-knocks lessons. Sometimes the spontaneous decisions that don’t work out still end up taking you somewhere you never expected to go.