There have been several points in my life--among them, just before I was fired from TrueSAN and just before I escaped the U.S. to avoid taking an Uzi into McDonald's--at which I saw my future as another fat man in a midlife-crisis BMW. I simply looked at those who were 15-20 years ahead of me on the same track, whether a director of sales or an entrepreneur in the same industry, and it scared the hell out of me.