Why I Love This Game

I just finished reading Buy then Build by Walker Deibel, a book about acquisition entrepreneurship and the steps to take to buy businesses.

To say this book blew my mind is an understatement.

Sure, it talked about what you would expect: the specific steps (leaving absolutely no detail out) you need to take to become an acquisition entrepreneur yourself.

It also made a great argument as to how buying an existing, successful business is a lot more pragmatic than launching a new one.

Those aspects alone were enough to make the book worth reading and leaving on the bookshelf for frequent future reference.

But the book offered me more than that.

In fact, Deibel made such a thoughtful and logical case for acquisition entrepreneurship, that I couldn’t help but wonder why I had never heard of it.

I’m still wondering.

Because the book essentially confirmed for me what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

That might seem like a hyperbole, but it’s not.

I’ll explain why…

For years I had been conflicted and unhappy with what I was doing at any given time.

This goes all the way back to even my “college” years, which I put in quotes because I didn’t have much of a college experience at the Naval Academy.

I was too young to know what I really wanted to do, so I did what my younger self thought I should do… follow my idealism and hopes for grandeur.

The Academy inevitably led into the military, and those years certainly didn’t improve in regards to figuring out my life’s purpose. It, however, gave me a lot of thoughts on what I didn’t want.

After I separated from the military (as quickly as I legally could), I dabbled in corporate America and working for the government as a civilian to see if maybe, just maybe, taking the uniform off would help.

… Nope.

Miserable as ever.

Then with a crazy turn of events, the gym I was a member of was up for sale. And when that opportunity fell in my cross-hairs, I knew this was the move.

I didn’t know why. I didn’t know a thing about running a business let alone a gym. And I certainly didn’t have the technical knowledge that a lot of other great coaches and fitness professionals have–I had only been at the gym for a few months.

But I also knew opportunities like this one were once-in-a-lifetime, and so we pulled the trigger.

In the past 3+ years, we have loved running a CrossFit gym, but there too, I felt conflicted because I never fully identified as a fitness professional.

Ideas of scaling our business online or through multiple locations didn’t interest me.

But if not that, then what?

A lot of people love to vocalize what they don’t like, what they don’t want to do, what they live to fight against. They’re not hard to find. We all know of people who have loud opinions and complaints.

I have never been this person.

I always searched for the things I could live “for,” not against. It made more sense to me to actually strive for happiness and live in alignment with something.

So this perpetual conflict I found myself in wasn’t something I wanted to remain in.

I say that because oftentimes people who are unhappy with their lives are often attached to their misery. They say they want something different, something better, but they don’t ever do what it takes to change their lives.

Paradoxically, they are happy being unhappy.

So for me, I wanted to figure out who I was, what I was passionate about, and what I wanted to do for the rest of my life… without question.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Buy then Build answered that question for me.

What confirmed, without a shadow of a doubt, acquisition entrepreneurship as my life’s path was not the facts, details, and potential monetary gain as written in the book.

It was how Deibel described the joy of being an entrepreneur.

Deibel expressed with total accuracy how I have felt about running a business, and how I will always feel:

“Owning a business is rewarding in a way that books can only point to. While describing their lifestyle, most entrepreneurs relish in the autonomy and financial benefits of owning a company. But it goes beyond that. When you own a company, your company becomes an extension of you. It engulfs your spirit, mind, and body. When you breathe, you breathe your company. When your company thrives, you thrive. A spiritual integration occurs that leads to the most engaged life I have ever witnessed.”

Buy then Build, Walker Deibel

Buy then Build was part practical guide, part ode to an entrepreneur’s life.

Because the potential for money and the lifestyle is great. There’s no denying that.

But that has never been the thing that drove me. The few times I tried to make it simply about money, I was miserable.

Too often, for people on the outside looking in, they think that business ownership is purely about the numbers, and it is not.

Not for me anyway.

Business ownership is the only thing that has allowed me to live in the present.

It has blurred the lines between work and play.

I no longer stare at the clock, counting down the hours until I can stop working.

I no longer suffer from intense, permeating boredom.

I no longer do just the “bare minimum.”

I no longer need forms of escape to cope with my day-to-day life.

Being an entrepreneur in America today allows me to be creative and make an impact on the highest level. There is no cap or ceiling that dictates how much and how quickly I can grow and expand my reach.

When a business broker I spoke with yesterday asked me what I was passionate about in life, I said, “… This.“

I haven’t heard anyone lend as much credence to the intangible returns of being an entrepreneur, and I truly appreciate Deibel echoing the sentiments I never articulated myself.

This sense of undeniable joy and meaning are truly the highest gifts I get from doing what I do… and what I will always do.

“Although entrepreneurs have a wonderful vehicle for engineering long-term wealth in their companies, they are almost never driven by wealth creation. Entrepreneurs have non-financial benefits that drive them. We relish in the autonomy, problem solving, growth, and passion we have for our companies. These aspects are not lacking in the acquisition model. For a true entrepreneur, financial independence has been reached the moment they take ownership of a company or an idea, from the very beginning, because there is no separation between work and life. It is the same mission at the same time. This is because for an entrepreneur, working hard for something they care deeply about is the life worth living. It’s fun, and these benefits are attainable on day one. Perhaps this is the ‘real’ wealth we all want–the purpose that comes along with creating value in your life.”

Buy then Build, Walker Deibel