Penna Dexter

Often, successful people build lives, livelihoods, and reputations in one place with the goal in mind to retire somewhere else. They dream of living out their later years playing golf in Florida or enjoying a quiet life in a mountain community or a small town.

Why not stick around in the place where you know people, carry weight and have influence? Where you started and grew a business? Where you have the gravitas to pass along your wisdom, your business acumen, and perhaps your business itself.

Aaron Renn cares deeply about the well-being of societies and cities. He recently recommended to his substack subscribers Justin Powell’s article: The Retreat of the Successful. Powell describes the loss a community experiences when a local business owner sells the company to an outside conglomerate, “a faceless buyer,” and moves away. He has observed too many “people who once carried the weight of a place deciding they’ve had enough and disappearing just when they’re needed most.”

Mr. Powell built a successful outdoor advertising company and founded the Atlas Institute for the purpose mentoring young Christian entrepreneurs. He writes of a “quiet exodus” which is “hollowing out American towns — not just economically, but relationally, institutionally, even spiritually.”

He says: “We’re not just losing the businesses. We’re losing the ladder.” Sometimes “a sale doesn’t just change the company — it disrupts the entire ecosystem around it.” Someone very important to the community — as a leader, a sponsor, a volunteer, a mentor — disappears. Families often lose a presence they didn’t know they would miss so much.

Justin Powell acknowledges, “Transitions are necessary.” But he cautions owners to “hand off what they’ve built with care” and consider “remaining present — even if you’re no longer in charge.” He says towns need “people with the quiet resolve to stay, to build instead of retreat.” He encourages these leaders to “stay invested in the places that shaped them.”

Instead of leaving, consider “planting deeper.”