In an earlier post, I wrote that I feel like I’m starting over again in my mid-60s. I built a great business, helped a lot of people, executed my own succession plan, and retired. Kind of!
Turned out I had too much energy and too much to share, so I wrote a book, and now I’m working on another. It isn’t like I don’t have anything else to do. I bought my wife “an equestrian property” here in horse country, on ten acres of rolling bluegrass. We built a new barn and have almost a mile of four-plank horse fencing that I enjoy walking almost every day, about 15,000 steps per day according to my Fitbit. That’s all good, but not enough.
I’m an intellectually curious person with a lot of energy and I have more to offer. I plan on writing one or two books a year for as long as I live. I started where I left off. When I worked at FP Transitions, I enjoyed the opportunities to help non-financial advisor clients explore and attempt to implement their own succession plans. There was a lot of skepticism from the folks I worked with as I accepted engagements from a dentist, an electrical contractor, a Hollywood studio and an off-Broadway production house, an architect, and others. By and large, it seemed like the plans could work, and did work when given the right circumstances. It was also a lot of fun to try something new and nurture it along even as I felt like a complete rookie again.
In this, my next chapter of life, I want to help organize the professional services succession planning world, effectively the clients of the financial professionals that we used to assist. I am not going to build a big business, nor do I want to. I want to enjoy the days of being a founder again, to be a part of the world and to try to make a difference, like so many of you. I no longer take this for granted.
This work gives me an outlet to keep writing. From books to blog posts, I get to share what I know so very well with an entirely new group of appreciative practice owners, young and old. We all want to be needed and to contribute in some way. This is what I’m doing and why. Thanks for reading.
If you haven’t already, please read my new book, “Building With the End in Mind” – a primer on how to perpetuate a professional services practice.
Thanks for reading,
David Sr.
