Epicurus thought that the worlds of commerce and politics “constrained the mind, limiting it to the conventional, acceptable thought”. Leaving those worlds mean that you can begin to think of more general, and arguably more important, matters. Without the pressures of business you can read and research matters that eluded you during your money-making days. Plato says, “Old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold then……we are freed from the grasp of not one mad master but of many”. The happiest life is free from the self-imposed demands of commerce and politics.

As a former businessman I concur. Putting it behind me and devoting myself – with my wife – to a creative life was like being re-born, even as I agree that the former pattern of life was necessary for the sake of home and children. But as for a “great sense of calm”, well, that’s a bit elusive, partly because of modern technology, designed, it seems, to roil the spirits in frustration. One can only do one’s best to inject ataraxia into one’s life, despite it all.