And that has made all the difference.

I wonder what it all means. I have been working for IBM more than 20 years. At the height of my career, according to some, I had 15 people reporting to me. Two of those 15 are now executives, and one was just promoted to Vice President. All I can think of is how lucky I feel. I know I am supposed to be ambitious, e and I feel quite confident if I had chosen a different path their choices could be mine.

They are married. With children, and have obligations in their life I will never have. They also happen to be somewhat younger than I am. But, I sit here wondering what it is all about. Is it about money? is it about taking better care of their own family? Is it about proving things to others?

And if it is about these things, what happened to me. I have a good life. Two homes I am proud of, but on a scale of most I am not a rich man. I am just me. The idea of the drive and time that their jobs require. The ultimate pressure to get ahead. To see what others want, the politics, and the determination required are things I had at one time. But now, they flee me.

I like my job. I can make a difference. I can work with partners. I can leverage the connections of my success, and the reputation I have built. But, at the same time I am not on a race track to titles and money. I am just on a journey to help make a difference at IBM, earn a good living, and not feel the ultimate pressure of being an executive.

Does this make me wrong? un-American, or does it just make me Brian.

I happen to hope Brian is just fine, and I am proud of these gentlemen. I hope I had some small part in their success, but I will stay where I am for now and look to a different future.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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