When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go

There’s an art to knowing when to walk away from the 9 to 5…

IT WAS THE great careers adviser Kenny Rogers who put it best, and long before Linkedin’s community support pages could echo the sentiment. ‘You’ve got to know when to hold ’em,’ he sang, ‘know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, know when to run.’ Call it what you like – the art of giving up, dropping out with style – we have a grudging admiration for people who refuse to outstay their welcome. It takes a certain level of self-awareness to know when your time is up, after all. It’s wise in sport, understandable in acting, and downright essential in politics. So let’s hear it for the quitters. Shame that the message doesn’t seem to have got through to some in the current cabinet. — Guy Kelly

Giving up the act

1. Seen here waving goodbye to a more than 20-year acting career, Cameron Diaz stopped making films in 2014. ‘I felt the need to make myself whole,’ she explained at a ‘Wellness Summit’ for Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand, Goop, earlier this year. So that’s that cleared up.

2. After making enough money to last him a lifetime playing teenage royal psychopath Joffrey on Game of Thrones, Jack Gleeson retired from acting at the age of 22 in 2014, choosing to run a theatre company. Slightly less incest on the production side, I suppose. But only slightly.

Changing lanes

3. Already missing that skintight, nationalist clothing, the chance to pose every minute, and being surrounded by people who rely on unnatural substances to keep up with him, Usain Bolt donned lederhosen for Oktoberfest in Munich as one of his first outings in retirement.

4. After working his way up the ranks of motorsport to win the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship in 2016, Nico Rosberg immediately called it quits aged 31, saying he’d reached the sport’s pinnacle. And here he is in August, looking ready to start from the beginning again.

Out of office

5. During Donald Trump’s first fortnight in office, his predecessor, Barack Obama, did what we all wanted to do: fled to a tropical island. But he didn’t exactly manage to escape insufferable blond billionaires – it is owned by Richard Branson.

6. As if he hadn’t ruined enough parties in his first career, David Cameron has made a habit of attending music festivals since he left office last year.

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