I’ve been reading a lot of Tim Ferriss recently, he of the ‘4-Hour Work Week‘ fame. He proposes that instead of working hard for most of our lives and stopping when your bodies can’t give out anything useful any more, forcing retirement, we instead take mini retirements during the course of our lives. This way we can fully appreciate life. Of course, his whole way of living is based on the idea that you run your own company or are a knowledge or IT worker who can outsource almost all tasks and end up with a disgustingly large profit. I love the idea, I’m just not sure that paying a dude to organize my life is the way forwards for me. It doesn’t feel right.
I could instead take an early retirement. I’d have to live like an extreme cheapskate and work 20 hours a day but I’m sure I could retire by the age of 30 if I really tried. Failing that, I could always be one of the most impressive and successful MMA fighters in the sport’s short history, get endorsements from Nike and Gatorade then retire at the age of 30. That seems as likely to me as the Ferriss plan, but to Jon Jones, it’s just a fact of life. This MMAJunkie article has Jones essentially saying he wants to stay healthy enough to go on and do other things after MMA:
Jones is fully aware of that, and even if he’s still considered the world’s best fighter at 30, he believes continuing beyond that point would only tarnish his reputation.“Right now, where I’m at financially, I never thought I would be, so I could honestly retire today… I just want to leave the sport with a good head on my shoulders, I don’t want to be one of these guys that are taking fights way past their prime.”
Maybe it’s the new studies coming out damning football for the increased brain injury it causes which has made Jones set out his early retirement plans? I only know that if I was in the position to retire tomorrow and be financially secure for the rest of my life, I’d spend today writing the most beautiful resignation letter. Let’s hope over the next four years that Jones writes a protracted resignation letter in the Octagon.
