Sometimes, the value of true expertise isn’t fully understood until it’s gone.

What would you do if a company pushed you into early retirement only to realize they couldn’t manage without your unique skills?

Would you walk away for good?

Or would you negotiate a return on your terms?

In the following story, one aeronautical engineer finds himself in this exact situation and turns it into a golden opportunity.

Here’s his story.

Golden Handshake AND Come Back to Consult? You Betcha!

My dad was an aeronautical engineer who worked in the ’70s and ’80s designing a very specific and critical part of airplane engines (specific to thermodynamics in the nacelle).

In his heyday, he was one of four people in the world with his level of knowledge and expertise in this particular area of aeronautics.

He survived the various downturns in the economy in the aeronautical industry and was well respected worldwide for his knowledge and experience.

At one point like 90% of the airplanes in the air used his particular part in their engines.

The company pushed him into retirement but quickly realized that was a mistake.

When the mid-90’s downturn happened, his company basically forced on him a golden handshake to cut costs.

He gladly accepted.

What they didn’t anticipate is that he was the only person still working in the industry who understood this one particular part, and making him leave left a huge hole in airplane-engine expertise of thermodynamics.

Airplanes fly a long time, and even 25 years after he started, some parts of his engines were still in the air.

Of course, his company realized this way too late and asked him to come back to consult.

He’s a nice guy, and he negotiated to come back at 3x his former hourly wage to pass on his wisdom.

Nice! That worked out well.

Let’s see what Reddit readers have to say about this.

This person’s father got a sweet deal to come back, too.

It’s all relevant.

That’s exactly what he did!

Another similar story, but a different industry.

The company got what they deserved.

Next time, maybe they won’t be so quick to let someone go.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.