I've been in a little bit of a frump lately. I can't put my finger on it, but nothing seemed to inspire me to write. There's been lots of crazy political stuff and lawbreakers who create stories that can't be made up, so there's no shortage of content, but nothing seemed to reach out and touch me. Whenever that happens, I find myself looking inward and contemplating just exactly what has been going on in my life. While this happens more often than I would like, this is the first time I've ever shared what goes through my mind when it happens.

First, I wonder how in the world I ended up where I am. Every time I've become introspective of my life, that's the first thought I've always had. When I look back on my life, it's hard to believe that it was really me. That I did all that stuff; some good; some not so good. Still, I find myself asking, "Did I really do all that?"

A couple of years ago I was in Los Angles at an event and Stedman Graham was speaking about doing the same thing every day, week after week, year after year and then realizing that you really only did one thing with your life, you just did that one thing over and over and over again. That's never been me. Quite often people will comment about my life with a negative tone because I've done so many different things. I'm good with that, because their opinion of my life is none of my business.

I have no idea how this all came about, but early on I just decided that I would only do things that I enjoyed. When things weren't fun anymore, I would just stop doing them. I will say that this is not an easy journey so if you are young and think this sounds like its just right for you let me caution you that you will be the only person responsible for your success or failure. You can go to a job and as long as you show up every day and do your job, you'll get a paycheck and benefits and whatever else goes along with it and you'll never have to worry if you'll have an income. It's different when you go your own way.

After the Navy, I went to school to study landscaping and started a nice little business. While things were going well in the business, they were not going well at home and after a divorce, I decided to give all my customers to a young man just starting out and drive off into the sunset behind the wheel of a trailer truck. That was a pretty fun life until another family came into mine. Being away from home every night wasn't so appealing then, so back to construction for a short time until I saw an opportunity to start another business. Parking lots needed to be striped and swept and I was the guy to do it. The Pavement Professionals was born and I always referred to that as my Playtex Living Bra business because since it was all nights and weekends, it appeared that I had no visible means of support.

One of the employees I hired had a commercial driver's license and wanted to see America because he had just moved here from England, so I bought him a trailer truck and started hauling paper from Maine to the Mid-Atlantic states. Every other month or so he would go to Alabama, but that wasn't enough of America for him so he left and that put me back in the truck. I had some great drivers but every time they moved on, I had to get back behind the wheel and there was a pavement maintenance business to run back home and I was doing business from a pay phone in New Jersey.

Several years earlier I had gotten hurt and needed to wear a brace for my knee and had avoided surgery for a long time, but it was now time for the operation and that was a turning point. During the recovery, I would not be able to drive or work in the parking lot maintenance business, so we decided to sell each piece off.

Kathy had been operating the pavement maintenance business along with operating her salon while I was in the truck and that was not sustainable. Those businesses worked out well for three families, who bought each individual piece and continued their success.

After recovering from the surgery, I took a municipal job that was rewarding because I was the beginning of a change. It was only natural that I would do well because it was about this time that I realized that change and adapting to it was rewarding to me. As fate would have it, unexpected change was about to meet me face to face.

In 1996, I heard about an opportunity at a company that was just starting to have a presence in Maine. I was hired into the Fleet Department at MBNA. For a short time I drove a bus, but then went to executive transports. My job was to drive executives of all levels, their families, guests and dignitaries that visited Maine.

Before long I was managing the day-to-day driver operations under my supervisor. Did I mention that my supervisor was Bob Oxton? Yeah. That guy. What a treat to work for someone like that.

Life is funny and gives you opportunities, if you are paying attention. I was blessed to transfer to a different department at MBNA and manage people with cognitive and developmental disabilities. What an experience. Here's what I learned: They didn't really have any disabilities. They just processed things differently from the mainstream. I learned so much from that experience and it changed my life.

"Life is what happens while you're planning it" is a quote that I love, and one day, MBNA offered me a buyout. I had no idea what was going on, but the deal was the deal and after many sleepless nights, I took it. You know what happened to the firm after that. It seemed to me that I had something to offer and another new idea was born.

Down to Earth was a fun little business. I enjoyed every day. It was fun for me and I helped out a lot of people, but at the same time it became more physically taxing so I started looking for some younger person to keep the business going and a person came along.

What to do now? It occurred to me that it might be worth sharing the good things that had happened, but more importantly the mistakes I'd made along the way, so here I am today.

It's been quite a ride, and I wonder what the next adventure will be. One thing I know for sure is that there will be another adventure, or two, or more. As I said, life is funny and it's also fun. When I was growing up, people the age I am today were pretty much done. I think I'm just getting started again.

Bill Packard lives in Union and is the founder of BPackard.com.  He is a speaker, author, small business coach and consultant.