I honestly don't know if I could live with myself. I just turned down a really great position in favor of a start-up I'm working on, specifically because I don't want to be in this guy's position.
Second, it confuses me that this guy is living off Social Security.
"After Apple, he spent two years creating the model shop at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, then was chief engineer at Thor Electronics in Salinas for 16 years. He holds a dozen patents, but he has never had the money to develop them into products."
Being a chief anything for 16 years in the Valley, I would think should let you sock enough away for a comfortable retirement, even investing conservatively. I suspect this guy is just bad at managing money all around, which he pretty much admits.
"I don't know why, it just never happened. It's probably because I'm not the businessman I should be."
As for your own choice - go for it - you can't win if you ain't in the game.
I actually have a lot of respect for anybody who could find peace after that.