John Rood: Beyond the Exit - An Entrepreneur's Blueprint for Life After Sale.

Our guest, John Rood, hails from Chicago, USA. John and his wife built an education business which they later sold to a private equity firm for a life-changing sum of money.

And to some degree, that’s where his problems started...

‘Life after exit’ was far from plain sailing for John, despite the fact that he was now financially secure. He went through a number of changes and realised that he was not prepared for the life transition and new set of challenges he faced as a wealthy ex-business owner.

He recognised that there was no blueprint or How-To guide for business owners who sold up and needed to navigate the next chapters of their lives - and so he wrote one!

John’s book Beyond the Exit charts his own journey but also provides valuable insights from his conversations with over 70 other exited entrepreneurs who’ve been on similar journeys and which we discuss during the conversation.

We also discuss:

• The 3 Things You Must Do Before You Sell Your Business and how to prepare yourself for life after exit - and what he’d do differently if he were ever to sell a business again..
• The 5 most popular activities for entrepreneurs after they sell - and why you should avoid most of them!
• We explore the concept of how much money is enough, a truly fascinating subject that has more to do with psychology than maths.

And John shares a great story about how he lost out to Sam Altman, the founder of Open AI when he was planning to invest some of his new-found wealth in a  tech startup!

So much wisdom shared -  and so now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr John Rood.

Links:

Beyond the Exit

What Happens When You Get What You Want?: Success and the Challenge of Choice

Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top: Amazon.co.uk

This podcast is produced by GR Media
Sponsored by Capital Asset Management