When I was 31, I took a pay cut to work in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher with the Japan Exchange Teaching program. I was a teacher then, and my vice principal told me a particularly poignant thing, “I hope you don’t come back and feel that you have missed out on life.”

His well-meaning advice has manifested because I got to restart when I returned to Singapore two years later. I am still an individual contributor while my peers are bringing in the bucks as established managers. I did go through a period of wondering if I should have made more out of my life financially.

But here’s the thing. I visited more than 30 prefectures during my 2 years there. I hosted people from all over the world at my apartment and even went to sleep on their couches for my guests living in South Korea and Taiwan. I gained first-hand insights of Japan and its idiosyncrasies. I must have assimilated so well into Japanese culture because I married a lady. And we have two bicultural kids.

I rolled with the dice. Lost some and won some. Wouldn’t have changed anything. At this age where you have few liabilities, go where your heart tells you to.