I'm a UCLA history ABD who felt no shame at all in quitting in 1986, a year after passing my PhD qualifying exams. As soon as I understood the feudal structure of the academic pyramid after working as a T.A. for two years, I knew I'd Master out. I'd started an import and flea market business after getting my M.A. and was quickly making more money than my assistant profs. Guilt-free quitting is easier when you see an alternative.

My exit was delayed one year by getting a second grant to do research on the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona. I published two articles in a Catalan history magazine and then worked as a translator and interpreter and spent the winter in Italy learning Italian while skiing. The unspent grant money paid for 40% of my MBA.

26 years after quitting as an ABD I reentered academia as a business school prof in Riga, Latvia teaching investments, entrepreneurship and history after running an ad agency in Italy and developing real estate in Riga. Had I never quit academia I would have had nothing to offer to those kids. Quitting academia made me a much better teacher. One of my students brought me the startup deal that's my pension. You get what you give. But if you feel cornered you have nothing left to give.