A "Man" Leaves a Big Company to Go Solo!

[Laurel here ... For all the men who email me and say, "Hey, women aren't the only ones who want freedom, flexibility, recognition, more money and greater opportunities. Wakeup! Men want all these things too!"]

As a vice president and corporate counsel for a New Jersey-based defense contractor, Jonathan T. Mann seemed to have a good legal gig. He earned well over $200,000 annually, more than enough for his family to live on comfortably in a suburban community four miles from his office.

But all wasn't well. Mr. Mann had intended to stay for a while with Parsippany-based DRS Technologies Inc. when he joined it in 2002. But a good portion of his job consisted of work that he thought wasn't appropriate for his level of seniority, such as negotiating nondisclosure agreements, he says. While Mr. Mann loved the law, in this role, "the joy went out of it," he says.

Find out what he did here: "Leaving a Big Company To Go Solo."