UPWARD PLANK POSEI had a very long and successful career and
retired a year ago, when the biotech company
I’d been with for seven years was purchased by
a larger company. Until then I was all in at work.
I was up at dawn answering emails and in the
office by seven-thirty. It would basically be non-
stop working until six or seven at night. I’d drive
home, have a quick dinner with my wife, and then
sit down and do more work until as late as mid-
night. I would get up the next morning and do it
all over again.
There were times when I’d be tired, and, as
with any job, there were periods that sucked, but
I really enjoyed my work. My company launched
two drugs that treat extremely rare diseases, and
there are probably ten thousand people in the
world today who are either still living or whose
lives have improved because of what we did. I was
working like a madman, but it was a labor of love.
Now I want to think about how to spend the
next phase of my life. I started working four days
after college graduation and never stopped. Now
that I finally have the time, I go to the gym every
day and to yoga once or twice a week.
All I knew about yoga when I started taking
classes was how to spell it. The group setting was
intimidating at first; I was definitely out of my
comfort zone. Even now, I position myself in a
discreet corner of the room because I’m so inse-
cure. My body’s bigger, I’m fifty-seven, and half
the time I’m the only guy in the class. I also don’t
know a lot of the names of the moves.
In my executive role, I was always thinking
about the entire organization and was very aware
that my every action would have an effect on
the company and the people in it. In yoga, all I’m
thinking about is me—the pose I’m doing, and
whatever is going through my mind—stuff that
in my former day-to-day routine I didn’t have
time to think about. And, frankly, I know nobody
is looking at me. It’s the antithesis of what I have
been doing for the last thirty years, and it’s great.