I have always found in life that I was the most valuable to my family

 Whether this was my birth family or my married family or extended family which also can include good friends too, that my real value was always.

Many people try to have value through their careers. I think because I started working (and being taken advantage of by employers by age 10 (part time after school)  that I always saw a career sort of as a way to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people who want to hire you.

So, by the time I was 21 years old I either wanted to own my own businesses or to retire as soon as possible. Finally by age 28 I believe I started my first business by becoming a contractor. However, I realized this likely wasn't a business that I wanted to always stay at for a variety of reasons.

So, owning businesses I saw as a way to better support my family and friends in various ways so I could spend more time with them.

Often if you are willing to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week for a short time you can create a successful business within a year or more and then delegate a lot of things to your employees and step back some except for the most important decisions in your business.

In other words I learned early to "Work Smarter not harder".

I looked around me in the 1950s and 1960s and saw people working themselves to death by 30 to 40 years of age a lot and this didn't sound very useful or fun to me at all.

Life should be an interesting game or experiment you play with kindness and helpfulness to all around you as much as possible. IF you can't live that way why live at all?

By God's Grace