After 30 years of hard work, long nights, worry, stress, and for some reason ,enjoyment, my dad retired. His years with IBM were ,I think , were  more successful than he expected. His success is still noted on the internet and he can claim fame to working with some of the "hotshots" of the business world  although he was always humble with his acheivements.

His ambition started early with applications to all the "big boys" before he graduated and he kept all his acceptance, and yes rejection letters  from his early days.