Retiring to the sandy beaches of Hawaii might sound like heaven to some, but, like a character on the TV show Lost, Jim Croson thought it was more like hell.
Just sitting on the beach and relaxing, he says, was "unthinkable," so he had his Ohio-based plumbing company ship him sets of plans for projects it was considering bidding, working up his estimates while sitting at a table on the beach. He still performed a significant amount of estimating—even in "retirement"—and he could stay connected that way, he thought, making his Hawaii home at least somewhat tolerable.