chief executive

"In the last four years I've taken, I guess, two weeks," he says, and that was when he got married. "And I confess that I did work the first couple of days of my honeymoon."

His problem with old-style getting-away-from-it-all vacations, though, is not that he's an old-style wage slave, but that he - and many other new-style execs - don't entirely want to escape. "It's not that I can't be away from my office. It's that it's hard for me to be away from my work."

Cohen's work and his personal life are so integrated, he often combines work with play. For instance, he attends lots of conferences, and sometimes he brings his wife along. "Or, since we're a client services firm, I like going to places with exceptional [service] because it makes me think about what we could be doing better," he says.

But the bottom line is that Cohen fears his ship will come in - and he won't be around to make it fast to the dock. So much in this economy is happening so quickly, and Cohen wants to be sure he misses no opportunities. "I think right now we're living in a certain economic moment that's fast-paced and exciting, and as a chief executive of a client services firm, I have to be available to instruct people if necessary," he says. "And, though I don't expect that moment to last forever, I feel I'm now in a period of years where it's hard to get away entirely."

THE THOROUGHLY MODERN VACATION
So we've heard why some successful folk believe it's good to vacation. And why it's, shall we say, not advisable for others. At this juncture, we turn to our expert for comment. And if you're expecting him to say the latter group is insane, think again.