His daughter just graduated university.
“Wow, the years have flown by,” John said to his wife.
She nodded.
“Yeah… even faster for you. You missed most of it.”
She didn’t say it with anger.
Not bitterness either.
Just… indifference.
Cold.
Flat.
Final.
And that’s what cut the deepest.
It wasn’t the recitals missed.
The football games.
The school pickups.
It was that she’d stopped expecting him to show up.
He had become a ghost in his own home.
“But I was building the business… building a life for us…”
He almost said it.
But what would be the point?
Especially now—after last week.
That’s when he got the offer to buy his business.
It came in way below what he was asking.
The buyer looked him in the eye and said:
“I’m not paying to inherit your hours.”
He had no reply.
And when he told his wife the sale was off and retirement would have to wait?
She said nothing.
She had sacrificed holidays too.
Delayed her dreams.
Watched the life they planned become one she lived alone.
Now with their daughter gone, she started making her own plans again.
This time, they didn’t necessarily include him.
That night, they sat down to celebrate their daughter’s graduation.
And then his phone lit up:
“Need you to call me. We have a problem.”
Top client. Big account.
“I’ll be back before the appetisers,” he told her.
Another promise.
Another lie.
As he stepped away, she booked a flight.
One seat. One name. One-way.
A blow for her freedom.
Most business owners won’t get a movie-ending moment like this.
No big wake-up call. No final straw.
Just a slow erosion of time, trust, and freedom.
Don’t let that be you.
If your business still depends on you for every fire, every meeting, every client issue…
That’s not freedom.
It’s a sentence.
But there’s a way to build a business that pays you—instead of punishing you.
Join the Owner’s Club and access real-world tools to:
- Step back without losing control
- Build an exit-ready business
- Create a company that serves your life—not the other way around
It’s free to join and you have nothing to lose.
Sign up here before it moves behind the paywall
——————
P.S. I’m not the “systems guy,” “process guy,” or “finance guy.”
I’m the “start living your best life today” guy—where you grow a business that gives you freedom now and lets you exit on your own terms later.
Want to run your business, not let it run you?
Sign up here and start applying actionable advice today.
Ready to break free from the daily grind?
Click here to gain freedom with the Socratic Success System.
Curious about who I am and what I do?
Learn more about me here.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.