Hi, I'm Mr. $Maxwell

I had booked a one-week cruise and a one-week land tour from Anchorage up toward Fairbanks. Helicopters. Seaplanes. Guided salmon fishing. Hiking. Whale watching. And the best part: no work phone. Two-plus weeks with no corporate responsibilities.

You have to understand. I had built a fancy-sounding corporate career that was a living hell. Nights, weekends, holidays. Didn’t matter. Two or three conference calls back-to-back. Questions from my staff. Demands from management. Calls from the CEO’s assistant about angry customers.

Alaska was different. The company cell phone plan didn’t include coverage outside the lower 48. While my manager was nervous, I was excited. The first couple of days I freaked out. I kept reaching for a second phone that wasn’t there. But after a few days of the most epic excursions of my life, the missing company phone felt liberating.

On the outside I looked great. CEO awards. Division leader. All the responsibilities I thought I wanted on the way up the corporate ladder.

Inside I was crumbling. Stressed. Unfulfilled. Stuck in a victim mindset. I spent way too many hours regretting every promotion I’d accepted, wondering why I needed a job where I was just a number. I survived a reduction in force and stupidly took another role at the same company when the CIO called me.

The worst part: every goal I had was money-based. So “make a million dollars” did nothing for me. Money goals are infinite. I kept telling myself to hang in there. Bigger titles. More salary. More recognition. But in the back of my mind was Alaska. Not just the glacier. The freedom that came with no work cell phone.

I turned in my two weeks notice on a Thursday. I had a cruise through the southern Caribbean booked for Friday. My boss told me I couldn’t leave her.

Best day ever