I haven't worked for the last six years. I can't consider Pilates and writing work when they are my hobbies. I would gladly do them for free. I'm just really fortunate that I get paid...very well in fact, for doing them. There are days when I would feel guilty, especially when I am having a leisurely breakfast while worker bees (aka regular working folks) are milling about me, rushing through their lunch. Or, when my corporate eagle sisters or friends talk about their promotions and work. I work only a few hours a week (10 hours maximum) and spend the rest of my time with my hubby, friends and pampering myself. People are always amazed at my lifestyle when I tell them how little I work. Thanks to good luck (and a good reputation, I would like to think), I have been able to command premium fees and get to pick and choose my classes (no classes in the mornings and weekends, maximum 2 classes a day!). In fact, on bumper months, I earn more than some of my banker friends. I have also been prudent and investment-savvy -accummulating a comfortable nest egg and am financially secure. All these have allowed me to lead a care-free life today and I am very thankful! Thinking back, I would never have thought that my life will be like this. I graduated with a fiery ambition and my career was fast-forward from the get go - I scored a good job in SPH right after school. After three years as a journalist, I got bored and quit. Dabbling in PR for a while, I realised that after being a journalist and getting sucked up to, I was no good at the other end. Then, I got bitten by the IT bug after reading an inspiring article about Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon). I decided to found my own dot com. After eight months, the dot com bubble burst and so did my dreams of becoming a millionaire technopreneur. Undeterred, I got a job as a business development manager (thanks to my charm and contacts) at CNET and was the youngest manager on board! My career sky-rocketed at CNET and I was handling multi-million deals and jet-setting all over Asia. I loved what I did and was hungry for more. Then an offer came that I couldn't refuse - I was headhunted to run a web design company for double my salary! Woohoo! Jumping ship, I stayed in this new company for about a year before I realised that my boss was a nitwit. By then, I was also disillusioned with the IT industry and felt burnt out. Needing a break, I quit and decided that I will take a Pilates course and clear my mind. During my course, I was still fielding job offers and my old clients who wanted me to work on their projects. I decided to take them on as freelance work and engaged a web designer to carry out the work. This went well until I was issued a lawyer's letter from my ex-boss and ordered to stop competing with him for work. It is so funny how fate has turned out. Like the movie, Sliding Doors, which showed how your entire life can change just because of a decision you made or an event that happened, I sometimes wonder, just for the fun of it, how my life will be like if I had done things a different way. Would I still be a corporate high-flier or running my own company? Will I be as happy as I am now? In my semi-retired, idyllic world now, I sometimes forget that I was once in the corporate world. Writing and investment now stimulates my mind while Pilates feeds my soul. I believe that I have the perfect balance and have even influenced one (brave) friend to follow my footsteps. Just musing...and a damn long one at that! | 
