Recently I saw a long-time friend and one of the first things he said to me was, “I’ve become the person I never liked.” You see, many years ago he left the private engineering sector for a high-level government agency job (he didn’t like the business development part of being a partner in a firm).
He now goes to work everyday bored, fed up with the bureaucracy, and wondering if he should have made a change a few years ago.
Boy do I see a lot of that in my business. Business owners who love their business, don’t want to put the effort in to grow it, don’t know if they want to sell, and who are coasting. So nothing happens. It’s stagnant. But they remember it from when they worked harder and it was growing at a fast clip.
Management and executive level people change jobs on a regular basis. I’ve seen statistics saying it’s anywhere from every three to seven years. Business owners are the same type of person (as an executive), they just own the business, so it’s not as easy to pick up and leave.
At some time, no matter what the owners age, it makes sense to accelerate the pace, show growth, and go on to the next great adventure in life (they should read my book If They Can Sell Pet Rocks Why Can’t You Sell Your Business (For What You Want)?).
For those execs who change jobs every so often, maybe it’s time to consider taking control and owning a business (as described in my other book, Buying a Business That Makes You Rich).
Life is too short to trudge through it being someone you hated a couple decades ago.
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill
