[d33kay]

1. Quitting a very stable tech job to start a company. I was 40, had a one year old and stay at home wife

2. Trying everything possible to make the company a success. Learning a lot in the process.

3. Realizing 2 years later, the business wasn't going to work. Shutting it down while I had some money left in the bank and finding a full time job. Ironically, the new company valued the combination of professional and founder experience highly, and I ended up with a 40% bump from my pre-founder income

4. Then prioritizing paying off nearly $70k in credit card debt (business related) over the next couple of years. Again, learning a lot in the process.

5. Consciously communicating and making decisions with the wife throughout the journey. Now it seems like if we could survive that experience financially, we can survive anything.

I learnt more about risk, negotiation, personal finances, communication and above all my own biases & limitations in these 4 years than in my 15 years of career prior to that. Wouldn't trade for anything.