You talk about an awkward financial stage for the entrepreneur - try Leaving a Legacy in the world after the Coronavirus scare!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all these years in business, it’s how little you can rely on any “era” in economic history. Maybe you remember the late 1970s, when I came of age. You couldn’t get a home loan with much less than 15 percent mortgage interest. Now they’re talking about negative interest rates just to try and keep the economy moving!
So imagine being in the “Leaving” stage now. Six weeks ago, some of the men in our online mastermind groups didn’t have to think twice. It was all growth, all the time. They were laying down financial skids for generations not even thought of yet. In our conversations, the biggest problem was keeping Uncle Sam’s cut to a dull roar.
But what now? One of the unexpected challenges of modern economic boom years is the life expectancy of the average entrepreneur. People become millionaires a lot more frequently, and at much younger ages, than they used to. They’re sitting on huge net worths, with a good thirty or forty years left on the odometer.
All that looked fine until the Coronavirus scare set in. Now, some of those same men stare down hard choices … give it away, or save it for even rainier days?
A Lifestyle of Giving
Climbing the ladder of financial strength, the way we’ve traditionally done it in America, is what led to men jumping off skyscrapers after the market crashed in 1929. If your identity lies in your ability to produce wealth, you’ll be in a world of hurt when forces beyond your control seem to “conspire” against you.
But if we learn to wield greater sums of money like a game of “hot potato,” I personally believe we don’t have to become slaves to wealth. In Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he had some wise advice about this. He wrote, “From now on, those who buy things should buy them as if they weren’t theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
Here in the South we also appreciate .38 Special’s way of saying it: “Hold on loosely.”
So, if you’ve reached the Leaving stage and you’re accustomed to tithing/offering 90 percent of your income and living off ten, you’ll probably have some inconvenient adjustments to make. But if you’ve been spending or hoarding that cash, watch out! Your ability to part with it is about to be tested.
Priorities
In the “Leveraging” stage, your priorities were:
- Acquiring Broader Markets
- Giving Boatloads
- Saving for Future Generations
- Investing Strategically
- Spending Because You Can Help
As you move into Leaving a Legacy, they become:
- Giving Endlessly
- Liquidating and Entrusting
- Mentoring and Influencing
- Relinquishing Leadership
- Divesting
The Leaving stage should be where you gradually “strip away” the external, material excess of your accumulation years. Assets, possessions and “things” should fade … while intangibles like influence, wisdom and love should become your way of life. That’s what I mean when I use the word “Divesting.”
The entrepreneur in the Leaving stage should become a coach or mentor to younger men in the roles he used to occupy. A lot of seasoned veterans go into business coaching services for that very reason. It’s why I started mastermind groups online. It’s a way you can still work, and still earn some money - but not because you need to. It’s simply a way of Mentoring and Influencing that never goes out of style.
The shorter your time grows on this planet, the more you need to Liquidate and Entrust your assets. There will be times you need to get to your money faster than you can sell a piece of real estate. Or, you might need to see to it those investments pass to your spouse or children with as little tax liability or probate involvement as possible.
It’s also the season where some men have trouble “letting go” of the reins of businesses they lead. They’re clearly getting too old to run things like they once did, but they can’t pull themselves out of the picture. You’ll do much better to invest in people to help you Relinquish Leadership. This doesn’t mean you become a “nobody” - quite the opposite! Ideally, it means you graduate to an even higher position of influence.
But all of this will get eclipsed if you Give Endlessly in your autumn years. We’ve seen the role model - a kind, strong, wealthy elder with a heart richer than his bank account. A sage, who cares deeply about his family, community, church and network. As Psalm 112 tells us, “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.”
Preparing for Eternity
We aren’t a “parachurch” organization or a faith-based nonprofit. So we don’t talk about faith all the time. But it’s hard to describe the deep significance of this season, if you aren’t persuaded that there’s more beyond the grave.
The riches of this world can do wonderful good for humanity, but they can also keep us from a good relationship with God. That’s one reason we steer the Legacy stage toward maximum generosity. Where you’re going, you need less and less money, and more and more faith, hope and love.
