When I left my high-paying job at a successful private equity firm in San Francisco, I broke "the rules." For the first time in my life, I felt free but also very afraid. It’s every financial professional’s dream to become a partner at a private equity firm where the compensation can amount to tens of millions in a lifetime. But me? I left the partner track to move to Tulsa. No, that's not a typo. My fifth generation Native American roots were still there in my hometown where my parents had raised me 20 years before.