The first and only time I have been fired from a job. Then a lawsuit was filed but in the end it was one of the best experiences of my life.

Phase 1: When I graduated from college and had a full time job at Oracle. It meant I was no longer in school and could finally "have a life". With my free time I went back and forth to FSU, where Shannon was attending school, and started teaching myself web development. Oh yeah, it meant I could surf more often than ever and I fully took advantage of that.

Phase 2: The day I got married. All of a sudden I realized I was now promising to take care of someone else and their needs and was no longer responsible only for myself.

Phase 3: The day Piper (my first daughter) was born. Our family grew that day and I felt an immense amount of responsibility. The following day was a Sunday, Columbia (space shuttle) blew up and I was employed at NASA and didn't know if I would have a job to go back to come Monday. With that I decided it was time to kick my entrepreneurial career in high gear and launched GlobalPromoter.com. Within 18 months my company had been acquired.

See, growing up isn't so bad. For me it was far more rewarding than the high school and college period.