When I retired rich at age 55, I should have been more afraid. I was no longer a highly paid CEO in corporate America, but I had no apprehension about climbing down. I had plenty of money, literally millions of dollars, and figured I could easily handle my transition into an exciting, fun-filled retirement. Las Vegas was calling, and Palm Springs beckoned. Then, without warning, I was pounded with a series of lethal storms that made my remarkable ascent in the business world look easy.After college, I had been unstoppable, rapidly climbing up, a businessman riding high on a fabulous, serendipitous winning streak. My life was also the proverbial story of rags to riches. I had to learn how to climb out of the box of poverty and low expectations into which I was born. In my youth, I learned lessons that taught me how to cope, survive, and win in spite of vast, adversarial forces I saw and felt but never fully comprehended. When destructive personal losses swept through my post-retirement life, the old lessons that had taken me to the top in business were useless.I decided to revisit my entire life. I desperately needed to find the lessons I must have missed along the way. It was a matter of life and death. This memoir is the record of that amazing search.