Look around and you will see many businesses “selling out.”  You read it all the time.  Some well known historical cases: Ben & Jerry’s, Stonyfield Farms, Tim Ferriss’s BrainQuicken, Seth Godin’s Yoyodyne, Derek Sivers’ CDBaby, Coran Capshaw’s MusicToday and on and on.  I haven’t gotten to this point yet with any of my businesses but I do wonder… if and when the day comes, will I sell out?

The guys at 37signals made an interesting comment when they mocked a small software company for selling out.  They believe that life after selling out isn’t better than they currently have it.  They don’t want to work for someone else or spend their time in meetings.  Their point was that you shouldn’t sell out to the big, old guys… you should just “kick their asses.”  It’s an interesting thought.  But what do they mean by this?

From what I’ve observed on the outside looking in, those who have a business that expresses them completely don’t tend to sell out (ClifBar as an example).  Many of the people listed above have sold their businesses and gone on to other projects that seem to be a more complete expression of their personalities for this time.  Seth, Derek, and Tim are all speakers and writers of some sort and Coran has a powerhouse roster of management clients.  My conclusion is that we can only “kick the old guys asses” if it’s really something we believe in, something that we feel expresses what we want to do in the world.  I think this is indicative of the era we live in.

So my advice for future Me or anyone else in this situation is to sell out if you feel you can’t do your best work through your business any longer.  But think hard about this before doing it, because you without a larger expression of yourself will be a big change.  Be certain that there is something more complete waiting to be nurtured on the other side.  Lastly and most importantly, continue to create deep value for yourself and thus for the world.  That is all I want for you.