Ricci M. Victorio

Visualizing Life Beyond Your Business
May 28, 2008

The key to a successful business exit strategy is in having an exciting vision for what you want to experience and accomplish beyond retirement.

• Retirement – say it again –
• Retirement – ugh, what a nasty sounding word –
• R-E-T-I-R-E-M-E-N-T

There is actually nothing redeemable about this word that applies to you! Let’s face it, you thrive on the juices of making a difference, being creative, and making things happen

One of the most challenging discussions as we work with our clients to build their succession plan, is to develop a vision of their lives outside of coming to the office every day, as they have for the past 30 years. The Boomer generation is young at heart, for the most part healthy, and now that their kids are ready to take the helm, they have got to find something else to occupy their creative and energetic spirits. But what to do? Do you want to:

Learn something new (learn a new language)?
Explore (travel, sail around the world)?
Experience a new lifestyle (buy a vineyard, breed show dogs)?
Share or be an advocate (teach, invent, write)?
Make a difference on a global scale (build hospitals, stop world hunger)?

More and more stories are being reported about Boomers discovering that they want to leave more than a business legacy – they want to do something bigger than themselves – like getting involved in politics; building homes for the homeless; or bringing medical care to remote or poverty stricken locales. It’s inspiring when you see a story about someone else finding the next level of social, artistic or ecological consciousness – but these people seem bigger than life, not like us. How do we determine what is inspirational and what is sheer folly?

Determine your “Must Have” Criteria

Every major personal and business decision must always have established criteria of baseline requirements and expectation of outcome. There are three axioms fundamental to achieving change successfully:

1. Take a realistic look in the mirror to get a firm grip on who you are as a person, without titles, financial statements or ego.
2. Take responsibility for who you are and your accomplishments (both positive and negative).
3. Once you have embraced who you are at this point in your life including your weaknesses and strengths, without blame or false credit, you can begin to create anything you want. You will have a solid foundation to construct your new idea. 

A favorite quote I have shared in many training sessions comes from the great German philosopher & writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:

“Our desires presage the capacities within us; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is indeed possible into dreamt-for reality.

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. What ever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."

Next in this series: How to Determine Your Next ‘What’

Posted by Ricci M. Victorio on May 28, 2008 | Comments (0)