Peter captures a moment in all of our lives when we realize that ten years passed and it only seemed like yesterday.

"Intervals of growth" as a concept is not much discussed outside of fractal geometries, but our perception of time is quite fundamental to how we live our life and the key decisions that we make.

Topic for discussion: There is subtlety here that could escape our attention. Peter is pointing his finger at the deeper meaning and value of life: our children. So what is more important, family or business?

Answer: We take as our starting point a first principles definition of business as well as life. It is simple: business is creating order (the form) and continuity (the function). And the inverse valuation statement is, "Anything that creates disorder and discontinuity is not business and it is the antithesis of human life." Peter, Jim and Lorraine all created businesses with extraordinary systems, ordering mechanisms, so their business had continuity.

A second and third principle immediately follow and these are equally important. Business as well as life is next defined by relations (form) and symmetries (function).

Businesses that break relations, or attempt to sustain asymmetrical relations, are exploiters. When and where there is symmetry of relations, real value is created, and businesses grow.

The third principle pushes everything forward in time, creating those intervals, and here the form is dynamics and the function is harmony. To the degree that a business creates dynamic moments for customers that create, sustain or increase harmonies within their day are truly businesses that are cherished. Again, this is part of Peter, Jim and Lorraine's legacies.

But Peter hits us hard. So many of us miss the dynamics of our families, and our primary continuity equation is broken (that within our family) and often trouble breaks out. Peter and his wife are prescient, wise for their years, to stop and realize their real baby was growing up at home, and their intellectual baby (their business) was already willing and able to spread its wings and fly. Perhaps it is time for many of us to consider selling.

You are the only one who truly knows the right answer for you.

You think about it: Does your business stand between you and your children?