? ? Join the ATS Network today. https://atsjrnetwork.com/opportunityCurt MercadanteCurt Mercadante never considered such a thing.Too late? For what?He was in the midst of running an extremely successful public relations/advertising agency and landing one big client after another. You move around a lot in that walk of life. Regular flights to catch meetings…conference calls and follow-ups…managing the collective anxieties of a demanding clientele base.His family was growing and so was his bank account. Mercadante did what he could to embrace the little moments that matter whenever they cascaded into view, but he also had to contend with the next thing: the next meeting, the next fire to put out, the next brand to promote. A carousel ride that continued in seeming perpetuity, Mercadante was satisfied with the growth of his business — because, why wouldn’t he have been? — though he couldn’t help but feel that there was something missing from the rush a surging career is supposed to offer.Then he remembered what a superhero looks like.Nicholas Mercadante, Curt’s father, was that superhero, almost quite literally. After graduating with an engineering degree from the University of Notre Dame, the elder Mercadante embarked on a career path that would be tough for any child to live up to. When your dad helps design electronic systems on space craft and fighter jets — you needn’t pine for comic book characters to save the day. All you have to do is look across the dining room table if you want to catch a glimpse of someone who boasts actual interstellar superpowers.But that wasn’t the primary reason why Mercadante’s father set such a high standard. What it really came down to was work ethic. Doing what needed to be done. When Nick Mercadante found himself facing a career switch later in life, he got a paper route. A paper route! Why? Simple: income was necessary. If there was going to be a gap in employment, that gap had to be filled. There wasn’t time for the ego to obstruct necessity, especially when there were mouths to feed.Eventually, Nick Mercadante wound up resuming his trajectory. In the 1970’s, he joined the Singer Corporation and played a vital role in the development of the first digital sewing machine to hit the market. Another breakthrough arrived while working for Illinois Tool Works throughout the ‘90’s. Boeing’s 777 airliner, the massive twinjet recognized for its capability to cover over 5,000 nautical miles, saw Mercadante directly involved with its initial launch.Such was the bar in the Mercadante household. You were actively encouraged to bravely stare down your goals and responsibilities — along with the obligatory pursuit of a life’s work done well. Adversity was seen as nothing more than a temporary disruption en-route to greater conquests. It was okay to get knocked down every once in a while. But to not bounce back up to your feet? Unthinkable.So you fast-forward back to Curt, and what his life looked like in late 2012. Whatever your determining factors for success represent, his day-to-day checked all the boxes. Sure, the manner in which he was operating could be construed as taking part in the “rat race” — but there was also a consistent feeling of satisfaction that arrived in concert with successfully escorting clients to the promised land.The only problem was time. There just never seemed to be enough of it.Minutes gobbled up by client calls and meetings, hours spent setting up more calls, more meetings. It’s not a clock-in, clock-out lifestyle. Rather, it is one, giant tail-chasing endeavor. Demand was high. So was the frustration of stymied productivity. Curt never minded putting in the hours, he just wanted a reasonable return on investment, a concept that hit all too close to home soon enough.In 2010, Nick Mercadante was given six months to live. Bladder cancer. His cells had been invaded, the diseased proliferated, and his doctors recommended a half-hearted course of treatment that was designed more to