The following is adapted from C.O.U.R.A.G.E. by Christopher O.H. Williams.
From the outside, my decision to retire from full-time corporate work seemed abrupt. How could I walk away from a thriving career and decades of momentum?
The truth is, it wasn’t sudden at all. It was the culmination of a long, quiet build-up—a shift in priorities that began as a faint whisper and grew into a resounding call I could no longer ignore.
For years, I had been climbing, chasing milestones, and collecting accolades. Yet beneath the surface, something essential was missing. The higher I went, the more distant I felt from my own sense of purpose. Eventually, I realized that my definition of success was too narrow. I needed to reset my life—to redirect my energy toward something deeper, something that resonated with who I truly was.
That decision didn’t come easily. When life looks good on the surface, it’s hard to question it. Maybe you know the feeling: things are stable, even comfortable, but a small voice inside keeps asking, Is this all there is? You try to ignore it. You keep busy. You take comfort in routine. After all, why risk rocking the boat?
But comfort can be its own kind of trap. Sometimes we mistake safety for fulfillment. We tell ourselves that adversity should be avoided when, in truth, it’s often the only thing that pushes us to grow. Maybe you’ve played it safe at crucial moments—hesitated when you should have spoken up, or stayed put when you knew you were meant to move. Or maybe your professional life looks strong, but your personal world feels fragile, unbalanced, or out of tune.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many of us are haunted by a quiet sense of dissonance—the feeling that we’re living decent, respectable lives that somehow fall short of meaning. The question is whether we have the courage to listen to that inner dissonance and do something about it.
For me, the answer was yes. Choosing to step away wasn’t about walking out—it was about walking toward something more authentic. It was about reclaiming a voice that had been buried under years of striving and noise.
If you’ve ever felt that persistent whisper that there must be more than this, stay with it. That whisper might be the beginning of your own reset—the lost note that leads you out of what Thoreau called “quiet desperation” and into the song you were always meant to play.
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For more insights on rediscovering your purpose and redefining success, you can find C.O.U.R.A.G.E. on Amazon.
Christopher O. H. Williams is a former Fortune 500 executive who serves as a business consultant, executive mentor, board director, and public speaker on strategy and transformation. His career has spanned four continents, with senior corporate and management roles at Nike, adidas, Goldman Sachs, Gap, VF Corporation, and Lehman Brothers. Christopher was the first president of African Leadership University, an institution dedicated to creating ethical leaders and entrepreneurial managers. As president of Custament Partners, Christopher specializes in helping teams drive and weather transformational change. A US citizen, Christopher is married with two children and splits his time between Denver, Colorado, and Utrecht, the Netherlands.