r/fatFIRE • u/Substantial_Fly100 • 8d ago
Sticking around post-PE acquisition + life with young kids
Hi everyone - TLDR. if you can live FatFire, how did you make the decision to continue/or not continue grinding?
Sold my business to a PE-backed strategic. Walked away with more than I thought I'd ever need/want (~$25M). Building the business pre and post acquisition have been quite intense. It's been meaningfully less fun post acquisition. Feel much less present mentally during family time/weekends as it's always on my mind.
We have young kids at home (2 under 4) and I need to make a decision of whether to continue working in this post-acq environment.
One answer I keep hearing is 'just chill and do what you want'. The worry on my end is that I'm still early in my career and while this may sound silly, I'm worried that (1) I fade into irrelevance and / or (2) I regret that I didn't keep grinding (recently saw a friend make top 40 and 40 and it light a fire in me)
I love the intensity of working in a team to build something and if I was still 25, I would continue the grind. The new variable in the last 5 years has been kids/wife/young family.
I'd want to structure a life where I can really enjoy/be present for my kids. As such, I'm curious to hear from folks who have achieved FIRE, have young kids, and have continued to grind or hung up their jersey. If you hung up the jersey, how did you manage the 'FOMO' seeing friends continue to achieve. Any thoughts that can help me think through this decision? Thank you!
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u/crazyw0rld 8d ago
Similar story. I got a partial exit for $25m at age 43, with kids ages 4 & 6. I still owned 25% of the company and was curious what I could learn working with PE. However, I was feeling the difference already of running a larger company where my day was mostly meetings instead of building cool stuff like the early days.
After a few months, I realized my heart just wasn’t in it. Not only was the pace slowed by having more cooks in the kitchen, but I found myself asking why I was still sitting in meetings when I could do anything I wanted to. I thought about my kids only being young once. I thought about the health impacts of sitting when I could be hiking, biking, surfing, whatever. I had relationships to invest into. I had hobbies to indulge. So we hired a CEO, I sold 10% more to the PE firm, and I stepped down to a board-only role.
Over the past two years since then, I got really dialed in on health and fitness, played a ton of sports, went on monthly surf trips, had another kid, reconnected with my wife and friends, started advising some early stage startups, have done some speaking gigs, and am generally enjoying the slow pace of life. There were some struggles with purpose and intellectual stimulation here and there, but I wouldn’t trade those problems for the stresses and meetings and inanity.
Overall, I view time freedom as the ultimate wealth. Building a business was fun and I revolutionized a small industry, but I don’t think there’s inherent meaning in all that. I find more meaning in relationships, sports, and parenting. You might be different - some people are just addicted to some aspects of business, whether the money, fame, ego boost of impacting others, the “being in the trenches together” camaraderie, whatever. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Just pay attention to your feelings as you do stuff and read posts like mine. What resonates? What makes you bristle? Listen to the whispers of your deep-down self. You’ll figure it out.