The long and short of the story is that I found myself in the fortunate predicament of receiving multiple job offers and having the opportunity to choose a great job that's pretty much everything I wanted - bearing in mind that nothing is ever entirely perfect. I really couldn't be happier.
On reflection, I do tend to do things the hard way - on my own terms - but I also tend to land on my feet. I think a lot of people want to live life on their own terms; they're just fundamentally afraid of dealing with the consequences of doing so (i.e. they're more comfortable with the idea of what's easy and safe, than with the idea of what's precarious but "right" on a personal level). I guess my philosophy is simply that life is too short NOT to live it on your own terms. I'm a supreme advocate of preparing for worst case scenarios but, once done, I believe in bulldozing full-steam ahead and taking control of your personal power. Once you've harnessed your personal power, you've already won. IMO, "losing" is the impotence that comes from giving that personal power away to an external entity...
