Buridan’s Donkey is a decision dilemma. A hungry donkey is set exactly between two identical piles of hay. Nothing distinguishes one pile from the other. Its rule is that it will move only when it can see which pile is better. There is no such difference. So it does not move, and it starves with food on both sides.
The trap is not the hay. The trap is a rule that will not choose until a difference appears.
An owner can sit a long time between keeping the company and selling it. The piles look identical because he has not understood the difference. He does not know the life either choice makes, though he knows what day-to-day looks like. He does not know the economic benefit of either choice. He does not know what freedom costs. So leaving and staying are the same story. He stays in the middle until he understands that difference, or until something else decides for him.
The piles stay abstract until someone puts a number on them. The number prices the pile. It does not price the life, and it does not price what freedom costs. Without those, the piles go back to being the same story.
There is nothing wrong with not making the decision today. It is poor planning only if he waits for something else to decide.
So what is freedom? What do you want it to be? Do you want to be carried out of the business, or leave on your own terms? Are you running to something, or running from something? Only you can decide your freedom.
Start thinking about what freedom means to you. I can help you learn what freedom meant to the 2,400+ owners we have helped exit. I cannot tell you what it means to you.
First published on LinkedIn.