I had reached the heights they had planned?

[keannu]

By "I had reached the heights they had planned", does he mean he got a similar position even though it's not exactly what they predicted? Has he make as much success as they predicted or did he become a failure?
From this, nothing seems to be derived regarding his success.

ex)Thirty years ago I started working in a world-famous multinational company. By way of encouragement, my employers produced an outline of my future career. 'This will be your life,' they said, 'with titles of likely jobs' The outline ended, I remember, with myself as chief executive of a particular company in a particular far-off country. I was, at the time, suitably flattered. Nevertheless, I left them long before I had reached the heights they had planned for me, and by then I knew that not only did the job they had picked out no longer exist, neither did the company I would have directed not even the country in which I was to have operated. Thirty years ago I thought that life would be one long continuous line, sloping upward with luck. Today I know better.

 

[Barb_D]

He left the company a long time before (if he had stayed on the path they outlined for him) he would have reached the high-level position they had outlined for him.

The grammar is the same as "I left long before I had achieved my 30th birthday" if that simpler phrasing helps.

 

[keannu]

1. I started working for a company thirty years ago.
2. When I started working for this company they told me that I would have a series of jobs with them.
3. They said that I would become a chief executive of a company in a different country.
4. But...I left the company before I reached the level they had told me about.
5. Also...The company that I was told I would be the Chief Executive of no longer exists.
6. Also...The country that this company (#5) was in no longer exists.

Now - read this part again - "Nevertheless, I left them long before I had reached the heights they had planned for me..."

He left the company before he was promoted.
After thirty years he has discovered that life is not something that can be planned so well as he once believed.

I know you can't judge or understand everything from this relatively short paragraph. But it's kind of contradictory because he chose his own destiny, so he can't blame the previous company. However, he seems to blame the company as it arranged his future. If he had followed their advice, he could have become what they predicted, but I guess the company couldn't even determine his own will. This is just my opinion.

I'm just curious what he achieved after he left the company though it's not mentioned here, and what the theme of this writing is exactly.

 

[keannu]

He left the company a long time before (if he had stayed on the path they outlined for him) he would have reached the high-level position they had outlined for him.

The grammar is the same as "I left long before I had achieved my 30th birthday" if that simpler phrasing helps.

Did he use "I had achieved" as a conditional as actually time-wise "had achieved" comes before "left long before"? "had achieve" didn't exist but its tense is prior to "left long" which makes a contradictory nuance. So I guess you should use not "achieve" but "had achieved". Is it correct?

 

[keannu]

It doesn't mention what happened to him. The theme of the writing seems to be that life is full of changes and that events are difficult to predict.

It is quite clear, Millions of thanks!!!! :lol::lol::lol: