The universe closed a door this week. And I’m done trying to pry it back open.

This week I put the final nail in the coffin of my attachment to a time in my career—and the relationships and organizations I built along the way. Each time I’ve tried to re-engage, it starts with excitement and energy and ends in retreat and collapse.

Somewhere in a Zoom call transcript, email thread, or text messages the narrative is being re-written and I will be cast as the villain. It’s time to take off the white What Would Jesus Do bracelet and put on the purple Nailed To The Cross one.

So I’m choosing to remember people from that era as they were: more honest, sincere, and energetic than the comfortable husks they’ve become.

Maybe I was just too young to see it then—highly likely—but there are too many people out there who would rather spend their time and energy protecting their self-image than putting in the work to evolve. Wearing their highly curated and carefully crafted egos like an old pair of slippers they’ll never throw away.

What a waste of a life.

In the same span of days, I started collaborating with people from a different period of my career. A time when I was fortunate to make big gains in knowledge, skills, and relationships—and even bigger advances in perspective. Listen, you can stack up knowledge, master skills, and build relationships all day long. But without perspective, they’re just credentials on your LinkedIn profile.

Perspective is the multiplier. It’s what transforms information into wisdom, connections into trust, and experience into better decisions. It’s only when you can see the world’s problems, needs, and opportunities through a different lens that you stop optimizing for the wrong things. If you haven’t gained altitude in your career and life, then you’ll never see what’s truly possible and your place in it.

I was reminded of this better path this week. The one often less traveled, simply because there are fewer people who know it exists.

And if this doesn’t work? It’s time to pull up the white athletic socks, lace up the fun-colored running shoes, don the smock, and warmly welcome everyone to Costco.