Private Air New York

www.privateairny.com Private Air New York | Fall 2018 41 Danny Cahill started his career at the headhunting firm Hobson Associates straight out of college. He was its rookie of the year and subsequently its youngest top producer and its youngest manager. At twenty-seven, he bought the company and built it into one of the country's largest privately held search firms. His success led to a speaking career that culminated in being awarded the recruiting industry's first (Knutson) ''Lifetime Achievement Award.'' In his other life as a playwright, his works have been produced off-Broadway and he has won the Maxwell Anderson, Emerging Playwright, and CAB theatre awards. His first book, Harper's Rules, won an Axiom award. Find Danny on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at www.hobsonassoc.com/staff/danny- cahill-cpc/ & www.accordingtodanny. com/Index.aspx I was asked to elaborate. is made no sense to anyone. Didn't I want to travel? Don't I want to take some time at the end of my life and revel in what I built? Don't you want to wake up and know there is nothing you HAVE to do today, that you can do whatever you want? Aren't you tired? "Hmm….no, no, no, no and…uh, no…. can we leave it, please." But no, we couldn't leave it. ey wanted to know more. ey weren't judging, just curious. So, whether it was the hour, the wine, or the fact that I knew none of us would have been successful in life if we in fact didn't judge everyone all the time, and done it well, I told them the truth. I don't want to travel. I have traveled nearly every week of my life building my company. e last thing I want to do is travel. You can all have my miles. Waking up in the morning with no plan other than where and when we are going to eat dinner scares the crap out of me. When did you guys start living for food? You talk about food all the time! I may be the first baby boomer to retire TO New York City. It's only a grind when you have to work for a living. To be there when all I have to do is walk, people watch, see shows, go to museums and absorb energy seems as much a paradise to me as being in a development with a private beach and a golf course is to you. Speaking of golf, we mostly suck at it, and you guys somehow think as your bodies age you will somehow get better at it because you can do it more often now. You won't, you'll suck more, and the sun will drain your remaining life force. You'll play 18, take a nap, go to dinner, and fall asleep during the movie you paid half price for. I don't live for good weather. I like the cold. I like how it challenges you to respond to it. I have never been freezing and exhausted at the same time. I know the desert has a "certain beauty," as does La Jolla and the Everglades…but you know what else does? Suffering. "So…you worked like hell all your life so you could suffer?" "No. Yes. Intermittently." "So…you want to keep on working at the office?" "Why is that so crazy? I like my office. I like the young people in my office, they don't talk about how they feel all the time, they don't compare everything that happens in life to something that already happened." "So that's the plan? Die with your boots on? Working?" "I don't have a plan. I only think about it when I see you guys. But no, I don't want to die at the office, if only because it would be embarrassing. I want to die in my bed, reading a book. And I want my last words on earth to be, 'I didn't know that." ere was silence while I signed the check and pocketed my credit card. I gave them the "whatever shrug" and one of my friend's wife said: "Our plans are much better than yours. Just saying." OPINION

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