Why I Walked Away from a Fortune 200 Executive Role to Redefine What It Means to Be a Billionaire
- Oct 7, 2025
- 3 min read
By Pete Dulcamara
Only a few months after being named head of corporate R&D at a Fortune 200 company, and given the responsibility of leading our global innovation and operational excellence center, I did something that shocked nearly everyone around me: I resigned.
On paper, it made no sense. I had spent 35 years climbing the corporate ladder. I had financial security, prestige, and the promise of even more opportunity. I was offered more money to stay. I was offered broader responsibility. But my decision wasn’t about money or titles. It was about purpose.
I left because I was seeking my own renaissance. I wanted the chance to write, speak, and advise on a new vision I call humanity-centric innovation. My aim was to help create businesses that improve people’s lives, not just the bottom line. I wanted to write a book that could speak directly to people at the beginning of their careers and encourage them to seek purpose over profit. My goal was to redefine what it means to be a “billionaire”: not someone who accumulates a billion dollars, but someone who improves the lives of a billion people.
The choice came down to one haunting question: What would I regret more? Staying in corporate America and never pursuing my mission, or leaving the safety of that world to risk building something new? I knew that if I stayed, I’d eventually resent myself for not taking the leap.
So I made the leap. My strategic choice was to write High-Tech Heroes: Why Gen Z Is Our Last and Best Chance to Save the Planet. In it, I share how humanity-centric innovation can harness exponential technologies, the business models of the 21st century, and the passion and purpose of Gen Z to solve humanity’s biggest problems in economically viable ways.
Leaving a highly compensated executive role for the uncertainty of entrepreneurship was a leap of faith. But I believed in my mission, and I didn’t want to leave this world having never tried.
The results have been more fulfilling than I could have imagined. Today, I run a consulting business with partners in Mumbai, London, San Francisco, and Milwaukee. I serve on two company boards, one university executive board, and a chamber of commerce. I’ve become a sought-after keynote speaker on AI, sustainability, and leadership. And I’ve written not only High-Tech Heroes but also a children’s book, The Robin Egg.
On a personal level, I proved to myself that I could leave corporate America and still make it on my own. This time I did it on my own terms, and in alignment with my mission to help create businesses that improve people’s lives. On a professional level, I’ve been able to work across multiple industries, advise universities, and even help found the Central Wisconsin AI Center.
If I had stayed in corporate America, I would be living in “Groundhog Day,” repeating the same patterns, the same cycles, and the same routines I had lived for decades.
Instead, I chose to navigate by the stars of my vision and purpose, rather than the lights of passing ships offering more titles and more money.
The biggest surprise? That it really is true: there is a masterpiece inside each of us. If we don’t paint it, it will never get painted, because no one else can paint it but us.
My leap wasn’t about leaving corporate America. It was about stepping into my purpose. And that’s what I want to leave you with: the courage to choose mission over comfort, vision over titles, and purpose over profit.
Because in the end, the real question isn’t whether you’ll regret leaving. The real question is whether you’ll regret never daring to live the life only you were meant to create.
So I ask you, what masterpiece is waiting inside of you? And when will you take your leap?
Connect With Pete
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