Arthur C. Brooks

This is a great country, isn't it?

But I did from the time I was nine years old, and I did it until I was 31.

So for 22 years, it was kind of my whole thing, as a matter of fact.

As a matter of fact, I didn't go to college until I was in my late 20s.

And I played in the Barcelona Orchestra and had a kind of a nice classical music life, but I knew that there was something beyond that.

So the first big turning that I had in my own life was in my late 20s when I realized I needed to do something else to support my family.

And I went to college by correspondence.

I got really interested in behavioral science.

And science, I had no idea.

But I became a behavioral scientist.

I did that as an academic for 10 years, and then I left to run a company for 10 years.

So I kind of go in these 10-year increments professionally.

The hardest one of all, however, came in my mid-50s when it was time for me to step back from this CEO job that I had.

Whew.

I was really lost.

I was really lost.

I was really worried about that.

That's what I was talking about at the very beginning of our conversation.

And it's interesting because I didn't know if I could be happy because I was giving up something that was so prestigious.

I was the CEO of this pretty famous organization.