My name is Tony Coretto, a recovering workaholic who found that I had become enslaved by the things that I thought would free me. I sold my business, left my new company after my team was settled, and decided that the rest of my life would be devoted to those things that I truly, passionately, cared about: my wife and family, my friends, exploring new ideas and possibilities, and creating a life of freedom. This blog is all about sharing that journey to a life of greater personal freedom and self-fulfillment, and it’s about developing and sharing ideas and learnings along the way. I’d also love to hear what others on similar journeys have discovered, and develop a community of like-minded individuals eager to become financially free, physically free, mentally free, and spiritually free. I don’t know what all that means yet, but I’m eager to get started and find out.
In terms of biographical detail, I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, by a single mom (not her choice: my father died suddenly when I was nine years old – heart attack) who struggled financially but was big on love and support. Her hard work paid off: I won a scholarship to Regis High School, then went to Harvard, and off to Stanford for grad school. Depressed and directionless, I took a leave of absence from the PhD program in Philosophy after a year there, moved back East to Boston, and started working as a computer programmer for John Hancock. Bored and struck by a attack of early-onset entrepreneurism, I moved to New York City and started working as a computer consultant at a company founded by the cousin of one of my college room-mates. I also met the love of my life, Suzanne, and somehow convinced her to marry me. Meanwhile, my college room-mate and I struck out on our own a few years later and started a business that thrived for 26 years, which we then sold in 2014. I left the acquiring firm in 2016 to devote myself to the pursuit of my personal passions in music (I’m a pianist, organist, and singer), writing, motorcycling, bicycling, travel, and Philosophy (still have unfinished business there). My wife and I also started a real estate holding company and plan to continue to add to our holdings as we build passive income and multiple revenue streams to support our dreams of travel (preferably on two wheels), both domestic and international, with our two amazing and accomplished grown children (it has been a pleasure and a privilege to raise them and to get to know them as they’ve somehow morphed into these fully-grown adults). I’m a secular rationalist, or perhaps a Darwinian existentialist (still debating that), and believe we all have within us the ability to live gratifying, fulfilling, and happy lives of personal freedom.