What if you had more money? (After selling your business)
What if you had more money? (After selling your business)
Is it possible to be satisfied or is that a fallacy of laziness
Have you created a bucket list?
I found a note on my iPhone from December 2013 called “Bucket List Stuff” and one of the items was “Have $10m”. Pretty ambitious to add at that time, since I just graduated college in 2011.
Fast forward to the end of 2021. I had sold my software company for a multiple of what I wrote 8 years ago. My wife and I’s lifestyle had gotten more expensive since we moved to California, bought a home, and a new car, eat out more, travel, etc.
This year I started thinking, what if I had more money? 2-3x more sounds great. Then I don’t have to worry about anything right? Maybe fly private a few times, hire a housekeeper, spend on anything (within reason) I want.
I looked back at that “Bucket List Stuff” note, it was incredible to think I accomplished the “Have $10m” task. Almost 10yrs later I can check it off. Yet, I’m wanting more…
How greedy of me! Or ambitious? I can’t tell.
When you think about your net worth, are you satisfied? Do you want more? If you can retire after an exit, are you happy with the life you want to craft?
Is it possible to just be satisfied? That’s what’s difficult to figure out.
On one hand, you’ve been trained your whole life to grow, reach new heights, expand your knowledge, and build the business. This is where post-exit founders start a new company again. They crave business/financial growth. I understand it.
On the other hand, is it possible to feel financially satisfied for longer periods of time? Can you still grow in other ways without feeling dull? I’m not so sure. There are only so many rounds of golf, surf sessions, and lunches you can go to.
It’s possible I didn’t plan enough for retirement. The WSJ has a great article on this.
Retirees frequently don’t realize how much their career provided a sense of identity and self-worth. Many fail to grasp the need to plan for a different source of purpose in retirement
Regardless of your path, if we continue using Jeff Bezos’ Regret Minimization Framework of looking back when you’re 80 to do the right thing today, put in 120% to the task at hand now.
Jason Lemkin put it best, “builds gotta build.”
Want to learn sailing for a month, go hard at it. Want to buy a new business, put in all the effort. It can be financially driven, or not. Who cares, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re going hard after it.
