Owner Conversations: Uncomfortable Thoughts
Learning From Conversations
Some of the most important subjects we should discuss dip into areas we try to avoid and often find boring until the day an event scares us into taking action.
The hardest part of planning for the future is that the future always feels far away. You fought through the uncertainty of building your company. The pain was immense and the sacrifices were many, but along the way you survived and built a profitable company. More than that, it now supports employees and their families who depend on you for a portion of their financial security. You finally reached a point where you could enjoy some comfort and satisfaction from accomplishing what many never do.
Then along the way, someone starts asking you what you plan to do with your company when you retire.
Retire?
You weren’t even considering retiring or leaving. You were just getting used to the better vacations, more freedom, and perhaps that extra vacation home you promised your spouse years ago. Your spouse endured all the late nights, missed dinners, weeks of travel, and the countless times personal bills came second to making payroll.
Retirement feels irritating to consider, but also strangely intriguing. Maybe there is life after the company. Maybe there are other dreams worth pursuing. Still, the thought disrupts the rhythm you worked so hard to achieve.
Then that little voice inside starts talking, “You’re getting older, maybe you should consider?” But you shove the voice into your mental desk drawer, slam it shut and tell yourself, “This can wait, my retirement is 5-10 years off. Why worry about it now?”
Then six years pass. One afternoon, a vendor stops by your office and offhandedly mentions that one of the founders of a well known competitor drowned in a riptide while vacationing off the coast of Fiji.
And suddenly, the future no longer feels distant. In that moment, you are reminded that time does not continue indefinitely. You try to push the thought aside, but it continues to play on your mind until, one day, you take action.
Maybe that conversation starts on a golf course with your best friend.
“Man, you ever notice nobody wants to talk about the important stuff until something scares the hell out of them?” Tom said, pulling a tee from his pocket.
Rick laughed. “You talking business or life?”
“Feels like they’re the same thing sometimes.”
Rick smirked and lined up his ball. “Fair point.”
Tom shook his head. “I had a guy asking me last week what my exit plan is. Retirement, succession, all that. I about rolled my eyes.”
“You? Retire? I can’t even picture it.”
“Exactly. Took me twenty years just to get to where I can finally breathe a little. Remember those early years? Making payroll before paying myself?”
“Oh yeah. You looked ten years older back then.”
Tom chuckled. “My wife stuck through all of it. Late nights, travel, stress. Now we finally take decent vacations, got the lake place… and suddenly people want me thinking about walking away from it all.”
Rick nodded slowly. “That’s the hard part though. You spend your whole life building the thing, then one day somebody asks what happens when you’re not there.”
Tom looked down the fairway. “I always tell myself, ‘I’ve got time.’ Five, ten years out. Deal with it later.”
“Yeah, until later is today.”
Tom paused. “Exactly. One of my suppliers stopped by last month. Told me the owner of a competitor drowned on vacation in Fiji. Guy was healthy too.”
Rick stopped adjusting his glove. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. And ever since then… I don’t know. Gets in your head a little. Makes you realize this thing doesn’t go on forever.”
Rick took a breath. “So what are you gonna do?”
Tom shrugged. “Honestly? Don’t know yet. Part of me wants to work till I drop. Other part’s thinking maybe my wife’s right. Maybe there’s more trips to take. More life outside the office.”
Rick grinned. “Well, maybe start with surviving eighteen holes today.”
Tom laughed. “Fair enough. Baby steps.”
Conversations like this are uncomfortable to have because they remind us that one moment we’re here, and the next, it’s just over.
I was once told by someone far wiser than myself that my life would unfold better if I imagined myself at the end of my life looking back, then live every day with that vision in mind.
Staying true to that idea means recognizing that each day’s decisions will either move you closer to that vision or take you farther away from it.
If you have read this far, I would truly love to hear your thoughts and comments in return.