Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Bill Gross, co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co. (ALV:GR ). didn’t consider retirement a serious option, even after he realized recently that he’d be leaving the company he spent decades building. That’s what Gross, 70, told InvestmentNews. a trade magazine for financial advisers, in an interview  published on Monday morning. “You know those adages about smelling the roses and chasing butterflies?” he said. “The markets are my butterflies and my roses. When I go to work Monday, I’ll be smelling the roses.”

The financial world was stunned when Gross announced his sudden departure  10 days ago, but it came after several tumultuous months at his Newport Beach (Calif.) company. Pimco CEO and co-Chief Investment Officer Mohamed El-Erian left the firm in January, reportedly because of tension with Gross. Gross himself was hurt and angry, which spilled over into his dealings with other executives at Pimco.

Fearing that he might have lost the confidence of those running the company, Gross finagled himself a job with Janus Capital Group (JNS ). which has opened a new office a few sailboat slips away from Pimco in Newport Beach, near Gross’s home. From there he will manage the $100 million Unconstrained Bond Fund. Pimco has been rocked by outflows as investors reassess where and how they want their money managed.

In the InvestmentNews interview, Gross offered some other insights into what drove his decision. He has always been, and remains, intensely competitive. “I’m in it to whip the pants off anybody competing on the same football field,” he said. “I’m as intense as always. … This is what I love to do and this is what I’m going to do.”

Gross said he was relieved not to be running a large organization, with the distraction of management responsibility and decision-making by consensus. “I’m not going to be hiring; I’m not going to be firing,” he said. “That’s one of the things that I’m relieving myself of … so thank goodness that’s over. I’m going to have an investing thrust as opposed to an executive thrust.”

When he realized he had to make a change, Gross considered his options before doing the only thing that a sane person in his situation could: “The real boss in the family is my wife,” he said. “She didn’t want me hanging around the house all day and said, ‘You don’t want to retire; you’ll regret it.’ So I listened to her.”