Diocletian was the first emperor in Roman history to retire.

He retired to farm cabagges in his hometown, after leaving his tetrarchy system(multiple emperors governing different parts) to ensure long term stability for the empire.

This proved to be a mistake.

As the different emperors started infighting and the whole system started crumbling, he was implored to come back to politics but refused.
He said that if you would see the cabbages I have grown you all will lose the lust for worldy power
But he didn’t die peacefully in his bed

He took his own life out of despair when he saw the chaos that the empire was in and the utter failure of his system.

Multiple lessons in there if you look closely:

1) You cannot abandon your life’s work easily and leave it all behind, you will always be attached to it, it’s a strong part of you. You fix and maintain things until you die

2) The old order or precedent you leave behind isn’t always going to work, times and things change

3) Retirement or abandonment is a slow death, because you will see things develop differently from what you expect and you’ll be powerless to do anything, you’re out of the game, leaving you embittered and daydreaming how you would have done it instead

Fix and maintain what’s important to you to the bitter end, don’t run away from where you have put your time, energy and money, don’t run away from your home and country.
While the urgue is great to drop it all and walk towards the sunset, the shadow will hang high in your head