Downshifting: you don't have to work so hard anymore, when you got enough money

[Jurriaan Bendien <bendien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quitting the rat race to get a life

New Zealand Herald, 20.07.2003
By GEOFF CUMMING
On John Clark's website is a eulogy to his wife, Jude, who died suddenly in
April. Life hangs by a thin thread, it concludes. Procrastinate at your
peril.

Ten years ago, Clark walked away from a six-figure income and prestige as a
managing partner in commercial law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.

"I had a 3-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son. It seemed like a good
time to get a life."

He split parental duties with his wife, did volunteer work and began
mentoring professionals wanting to take control of their lives.

His wife's death from a heart attack came without warning and devastated
Clark. But it reinforced his decision to abandon his profession.

"Even with that big drop in income we were able to do things we wouldn't
have done. Instead of having a Mercedes, we had our lives together.

"If I had spent the last 10 years grinding away in the corporate world and
then Jude had died I would have regretted so much."

Clark was in the vanguard of an international trend which is challenging the
traditional work ethos: top staff are no longer willing to worship endlessly
at the corporate altar.

In Britain last year, 2.6 million people "downshifted" in a quiet personal
revolt against the culture of getting and spending, says a report by market
analysts Datamonitor.

The trend has reached the corridors of power: British MP Alan Milburn, a
Blairite tipped as a future Labour leader, resigned as Health Minister last
month to spend more time with his children. And the press believed him.

The whole story:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3513411&thesection=news&t
hesubsection=general