A year after he quit as Newfoundland and Labrador's premier, Danny Williams is forging new trails that involve ice rinks and shopping malls.

Watch On Point

Danny Williams will be David Cochrane's guest on a special edition of On Point, airing Friday at 6:30 p.m. NT, 6 o'clock in most of Labrador

As well, in a year-end interview with CBC News, Williams admits that his return to private life was partly triggered by growing sensitivity to criticism.

"It got to a point where, you know, I guess some of the PR side of it was just starting to annoy me," Williams, who was known for volatile reactions to numerous events, said in the On Point interview.

"I was getting a thin skin again and I thought, 'Look, you know, it's — you've kinda done what you set out to do. It's time to move on."

Williams, who made a surprise decision to step down in December 2010 after seven years in office, is now president of the St. John's IceCaps, and is spearheading a multi-billion-dollar plan to develop a massive part of the southwest end of St. John's that will take years to complete.

Williams, whose post-political ambitions earned him a spot as a CBC Newfoundland and Labrador newsmaker of the year, said he is simply bringing the same zeal he had for politics to other areas.

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"I always felt that if you set the bar high enough, even if you fall a little bit short, you're still up here. If you set it low, if you fall short, you're down here. And that's kind of been my very simple philosophy."

Williams is leading a development team that — pending regulatory approval — hopes to break ground in an area near his Glendenning golf course for a multi-phase project that includes subdivisions, a shopping district and an industrial area.

The land is the size of Gander, and St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe says the value of the development could be worth $5 billion.

"I started the land acquisition for this particular project 15, 16 years ago. And when you acquire land, you look down the road and wait for people to catch up to you," said Williams.

"I've always felt I've had some luck, there's no doubt about that, but they say sometimes hard work brings luck with it. My own personal motto is that if you don't anticipate the future, you won't be part of it."