My Books
COMING MAY 1ST, 2026! (Please sign up for my Beyond the Founder Newsletter for previews and release updates)
If you wake up one morning and realize you’re running on the founder’s treadmill, you have done nothing wrong. You started the way most small business owners do: with intelligence, grit, and sheer determination. Income starts to flow, and your hard work is gradually rewarded.
That is a success story. It is how many small businesses are born. It just isn’t how they last.
Because what works at the beginning can quickly become the reason the business stalls. The founder’s treadmill is the all too common pattern in which small business growth and success depend on the founder doing, basically… everything. And that can’t last. Over time, momentum starts to feel like a burden. Hard work stops being the solution, and even works against you. The business becomes harder to scale, more exhausting to lead, and far less valuable, or transferable, than it should be.
In this practical field guide, award-winning author and consultant David Grau Sr., JD, offers a clear five-year plan to build a business that is stronger, more profitable, more valuable, and (much) less founder dependent.
So… don’t run faster. Run smarter, with a solid plan and in a specific direction. Because lasting businesses do not depend on one person forever.
Step off the treadmill and build a business that works for you, starting today.
What if your professional services firm could outlast you—and thrive across generations?
From technology consultants and healthcare providers to wealth advisors, tax professionals, and legal experts, many of today’s most vital services are delivered through small, specialized firms. But there’s a problem: most of these practices are built to end with the founder. One-generation and done.
It doesn’t have to be that way…
This book is your step-by-step guide to building something bigger—something durable. With 50 succinct, hard-hitting lessons, you’ll learn how to create a business that is valuable, profitable, investable, and able to grow well beyond your career. Unlike selling to a third party, succession planning is a gradual transition of ownership and leadership—often over 10 to 20 years. If done right, it can change not just your exit, but your entire approach to building and leading your firm.
Written specifically for first-generation (G1) founders, this book is also an essential resource for attorneys, accountants, valuation specialists, and bankers supporting succession planning.
Leave a legacy worth inheriting. Build with the end in mind.
2025 Global Book Awards BRONZE MEDAL winner (Business Management category)!
You don’t have to start from scratch to build something great.
If you’re a next-generation professional in a growing services field—technology, healthcare, legal, financial, tax, veterinary, sustainability consulting, or beyond—you may already be facing a career-defining choice:
Should I start my own firm?
Or should I buy into the one I’m helping build?
Acquiring Your Future Through a Succession Plan is your guide to doing the latter—smarter, sooner, and with far more upside than you might think. Succession planning is not about waiting your turn. It’s a structured, collaborative transition of ownership and leadership that can take place over 10 to 20 years—if the plan starts early enough.
In this book, you’ll learn:
- How gradual equity acquisition really works
- What to ask (and watch for) before buying in
- How to structure a shared vision across generations
Whether you’re still early in your career or already managing client relationships and teams, this book will equip you with the mindset, mechanics, and motivation to take the next step.
Don’t wait in line at the business where you work and hope for the best. Control and own your future.
Lead with purpose. Win with integrity. Build something that lasts—and that matters.
The Stewardship Advantage is a purpose-driven strategy for small business owners who want more—more meaning, more loyalty, more growth, and more enduring value.
This isn’t a feel-good, theoretical philosophy book. It’s a practical, market-smart model for running a business that thrives because it puts stakeholders first. When your employees, customers, suppliers, and community do better, you do better too.
Across industries, customer expectations are clearly shifting. People are seeking values-driven alternatives to big, impersonal corporations. They want transparency, trust, and businesses they can believe in. This creates a powerful tailwind for small business owners willing to lead with principle and purpose.
Drawing on real-world insights and Stewardship Spotlights from around the globe, author David Grau Sr. shows how stewardship drives performance, strengthens teams, deepens trust, and creates legacy-level value. Whether you’re building, scaling, or preparing for succession, this book offers a strategy and the plans to do well—and do good.
Because stewardship isn’t just the right way to run a business—it’s the advantage that sets you apart.
2025 BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD
Book Excellence Award (TSA)