You're reminding me of what happened when I had my first mid-6-figures year in my business and was able to qualify for a mortgage on a dream home. I don't think I was consciously being prideful at all, but I simply lost a lot of my drive for growing the business. I just wanted to enjoy living in the new home, and when problems occurred with my 2 biggest clients, I didn't feel a lot of incentive to even try to work them out. I was relaxing in a beautiful place of my own for the first time in my life, growing a garden, meeting new neighbors, learning to slow down. I had made so much money in the previous years, while working myself straight into the emergency room from nervous system exhaustion, that I felt like I deserved a break.

Problem is, dream homes come with big mortgage payments. And eventually you've got to replace the income from large clients who walk. I made a lot of decisions that made life more and more enjoyable over the last few years, while letting the money cards fall wherever they may.

Then about a year ago it became clear that this wasn't working. I then had to go back to working non-stop like right before I got this place, just to keep it. But this time, some years older and quite a bit wiser, I realized that going back wasn't the answer. I needed to move forward in a new way. So now I'm selling this dream home to someone who can more easily afford this dream, and recreating my dream someplace where I can afford to retire.

It's true that I've entered a life phase that isn't about ambition or building a business, but then I have to also make choices about where to live that are consistent with that. I think some of the folks who previously had a lot of energy for building something who have been "resting on their laurels" maybe do need a rest. They just need to restructure their lives to support that and go all in on what that means. Otherwise, despair!