>if it's not something you already do, you won't be doing it when you have free time/ money.

And why would you already be doing so much of something you didn't enjoy at all?

Also if it's something you really can enjoy why would you want to stop?

As long as I have a roof over my head why not continue, even if that was only the roof of my van after natural disaster.

I have no mortgages or debts, just other obligations which require regular payments not much differently than that, which cannot be "paid off" regardless of whether I'm working for a regular income or those funds were to be coming in some other way which required no further effort or attention.

That's why I work for my present employer to begin with, but it does keep me away from people I care about and those that care about me far too much. For so long everything I do must contribute foremost to "survival activities" even though I'm old enough for there to be no real recovery in my lifetime to very much of a fraction of the potential I lost before serial natural disasters have occurred.

Since that's the case I've been in anyway, I have made sure to do way more than necessary while I am at work, even though this employer showed their limitations to accept my proven growth approaches quite early. I wanted to finish the job I started on their terms if that's all there is, it's their company not mine. I will now be moving to a more generous employer where I will be able to have opportunites for more prosperous partnerships together for the first time in 20 years since closing my first company about a decade ago.

>Did he continue collecting scrap metal though? Maybe this was his true passion.

We both started out collecting surplus electronics in the 1980's, separating the wheat from the chaff IOW the worthwhile from the scrap. Still can get more out of second-hand instruments than others operating brand new.

For some time there's been another really wealthy Texas acquaintance who has been been doing a lot with electronics, computer science, and chemistry himself and has prospered quite remarkably in ways that I could not contribute to nearly as much without these years of recovery behind me. I could have started all over again in his distantly-related field, but not the one where I would be able to recover previously established international leadership. Even though he was well set and expressed interest years ago, we were both having nowhere near the potential that exists today, and could result in combining efforts & resources together with my new laboratory employer whom I have been much closer with for four decades not just one decade. Anything I invent now (if it's good enough) can be taken around the world with the help of a rare capitalist combined with a familiar established company having a fledgeling international presence already. There's always been more money in making deals than actual labor (aside; why do you think it's called a laboratory anyway), I'm not a greedy person but know it's even better doing both while I still can.

It was just not the brightest outlook until I could recover to the degree I have, where I could once again consider myself to be self-sufficient financially (with the available help of Social Security retirement payments if I want them now), before I would be able to pull my own weight in a partnership with others who are quite self-sufficient themselves, even if my contribution did not need to be financial to begin with.

I'll still work 12+ hour days and take 2 days off per week, but pass on much more of what I know while bringing those who care closer to me.

I just want to work and have something to show for it, not have something to show without working for it.

>It has to be burning in you, not some idle fantasy.

It's good having a wealthy Texas benefactor who got that way working with his own hands, and as a capitalist has a much more serious understanding about the way I have no risk to offer, and never had. These terms just fly over almost all others' heads.

When you do the math, we could all make more by me just investing their money with my own extreme low-risk high-growth approaches instead of continuing my laboratory experiments, I would still be working 12+ hour days anyway. Now instead I might be able to participate in more life-saving efforts than I ever thought possible. Even though I'll still be working with toxic materials myself.

So I know I'll have to slow down my bench work eventually, but I'm not giving up the momentum I have on my own two feet with my own two hands, even though I am certainly not arthritis-free at this point. Planting my butt in a seat definitely does not leverage natural science very much by comparison.

In the mean time I'll once again be able to give lucrative free advice to select commodity traders who actually take delivery, advising on behalf of an employer who can truly appreciate that kind of thing.

Plus I think it'll be more rewarding to work with an aged wealthy Texan who's still alive than benefit from one leaving money in their will after they have passed. I'll be meeting him again later today, though he's aged he's still younger than me, but my new company President is not, I'm going to be the "spring chicken" on their top leadership team.

IOW it's a little too late for retirement, OTOH it's a little too early.