In one brief and life-changing moment, I negotiated a future without a salary, and I never thanked my idiot boss. I listened in total amazement as my boss told me that he had personally arranged a five percent raise after a year in which I had negotiated contracts valued at 70 percent of the firm's revenues and 80 percent of its profits. When he told me that I was too young--I was a brash and confident 30-- to command a larger raise and a promotion I blew up and said in acidic seriousness, "That's a %*&@ insult". I stormed out of his plush office and into my Spartan digs, emptied my desk, and retreated to the dingy bar in the depths of the building. Staring into my swirling Scotch I had my epiphany: I was not fit to be an imperfect employee, but I was and am fit to be the perfect author and entrepreneur. That bit of wisdom, of self-awareness, kicked off a future of living large.