Since they took over her business, The Art Institute has doubled the enrollment and the tuition and built a brand new facility to house the future growth. She can drive by and feel proud that what she spent twenty years of her life on is thriving by helping even more people to develop their talents.

Topic for Discussion: What is the meaning and value of your life?

Answer: If the answer to that question is, "to make money or to make a living" then you will never sell your business. Bonnie Brown, a family business consultant, told us that the reason many older business owners never leave the business is that they don't have anything else to do. Seems simple but all great truths seem simple on the surface.

We are not suggesting that everyone should sell. Everyone should do what they want to do and hopefully what best serves customers and employees over the long haul. If there is a way for your business to outlive you, you should try to make that happen. If there is a way that your business could grow and provide even more good jobs then you should try to make that happen.

Of course the most doctrinaire among us, especially the literalists among the religious faiths, have ready and fixed answers for all of us. We hold only one truth to be self-evident, and that is that business should always be defined as "value-creation" and value is what creates order/continuity, relations/symmetries, and dynamics/harmonies. All else is the product of exploiters, not business people.

By the time most of us business owners get into our fifties, we begin having some depth of knowledge and reasoned thinking. We believe these are our wisdom years and very important years for most of us to transition out of our business and to begin serving on boards and as volunteers.

You think about it: How do you spend your time now? How would you like to spend your time? Is there a gap in the answers to these two questions? If so, what can you do to close the gap?