Is Dying at Your Desk the Best You Can Do?

When he posed the question to me, I have to admit it made me feel a little uncomfortable.

"Is dying at your desk the best you can do?" asked Paul Cronin, partner at the Massachusetts-based Successful Transition Planning Institute. I didn't know Paul very well -- in fact, this was the first time I had spoken to him. Even though I have given the spirit of his question a lot of thought in the last ten years, it still hit me right between the eyes.

When I started my last business, I knew it was not going to be "forever." I'm just not wired to do one thing for a really long time. I knew I would want to start it, build it up, sell it, and go do something else.

As my business grew and became a sellable company, I needed to start thinking about what to do next. I immediately thought about starting another business... but then I realized that I'd be wasting a perfectly good opportunity to do something I hadn't before had the time or inclination to do: I could take break -- a long one -- and just enjoy life.

But what would I do? Sports has always been a passion but the idea of exercising all day seemed boring. The one thought that did intrigue me was moving to another country. I had spent most of my life in Toronto, where the winters are long and cold and life was getting a little predictable. So my wife and I decided to investigate transplanting ourselves elsewhere.

Being from Canada, we both grew up learning a bit of French in school. It wasn't much to go on but it was something. I googled "the sunniest place in France" and came up with a village in the south called Aix-en-Provence, where they boast more than 300 days of sun a year.

Today, we're approaching our one-year anniversary over here with mixed emotions. Living abroad has been an amazing experience for our family and brought us closer. Our kids attend a local French school. My wife and I go to French class together three times a week. I'm training for a triathlon that will be held here in Aix this summer, and I've had time to write a new book (which, by the way, comes out next month).

So on the surface, things are good -- just as we dreamed. But inside, I feel a little empty. It all seems a little too perfect. I don't miss my old business, but I'm starting to yearn for the challenge and camaraderie of starting another business. I'm trying to find a balance between enjoying the new life we've created for ourselves over here with the sense of excitement I get from building a business.

According to Paul Cronin, I'm going through a pretty typical post business sale transition.

Cronin and his partner Jack Beauregard coach business owners in finding significance and meaning in their lives after selling their companies. Now, you may wonder why that's necessary. After all, many cashed-out entrepreneurs leave with a pocketful of money to fund their retirement dreams. But, according to Cronin, once the novelty of playing golf -- or traipsing around sunny Aix-en-Provence -- while everyone else is working wears off, a sense of emptiness sets in. Some business owners fill the void by starting another growth-oriented business, but Cronin says most prefer to find less stress-inducing and time-consuming ways to feel connected.

One successful entrepreneur -- a graduate of Cronin's transition program -- sold his multimillion-dollar business and started a small bike tour company because he has always loved cycling and enjoys showing people the beauty of the East Coast of the United States.

Another client sold his business for seven figures and bought a hot dog stand so that he could interact with the public every day but not have the stresses of running a large company.

A third alumnus of the program created a phone-based executive coaching practice, which allowed him to move to a part of the country where he and his wife had always dreamed of living.

What's interesting to me about all three of the examples above is that in each case, the business owner found meaning and purpose all over again in another business -- albeit a lifestyle one. In fact, most of Cronin and Beauregard's clients do not go on to start a philanthropic venture or move to an exotic island in the South Seas. Instead, they often find their new purpose in small, lifestyle businesses. They continue to make a contribution but do it in a way that allows them to be who they really are.

Is a lifestyle business in my future? I still don't know.

How would you answer the question? Is dying at your desk the best you can do?

Read more:

• 4 Reasons an MBA Is Bad for Entrepreneurs
• Why Your Second Startup Will Outshine Your First
• 5 Things Warren Buffett Wants You To Do in 2011

John Warrillow is the author of Built To Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, which will be released by Portfolio/Penguin on April 28, 2011.