Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Section I Operational Challenges . . . and Solutions -- Chapter 1 The Founder as the Sun -- The Evolution of a Founder-Centric Firm -- Is My Firm Founder-Centric? -- Awareness -- "The Painters" -- Chapter 2 Replacing the Sun: A New Solar System -- What Road Do You Choose? -- Committing to the Road Less Traveled -- Assessing the Client Experience -- Welcome to McDonald's: May I Take Your Order? -- Human Capital Framework -- Improvement Matrix -- Chapter 3 Ordering Off the Menu -- Choices Have Consequences -- The Easiest One -- The Great "Current Income" Debate -- Equity versus "Milking" -- What Does a Successor Want off the Menu -- Not Everyone Is William Wallace -- Chapter 4 Setting a Vision, Together -- STEP 1: Can We Work Together? -- Step 2: Setting a Vision -- Section II Financial Challenges . . . and Solutions -- Chapter 5 It's Always About the Money -- An Ironic Twist -- Management versus Equity -- Value and Control -- Distribution of Value as a First Step -- The Founder's Financial Dilemma -- The Successor's Financial Dilemma -- Building for an Exit Doesn't Maximize Value -- Hope Is Not a Strategy -- The Great Risk Divide -- Chapter 6 Splitting the Pies: Defining What Is Enough -- Only One Thing Really Matters -- Four Big Questions -- Defining an Exit Date -- Successor Concurrence -- Non-Operator Owners -- Mandatory Sales/Retirement -- The Pie-Slicing Exercise -- Slicing the Equity -- Slicing Up the Cash -- Avoid the Path to Neutral -- Defining What's Enough-a Real Case -- What a Successor Should Ask For -- Chapter 7 Let's Make a Deal -- Discounting Is the Name of the Game -- External Capital -- Lessons from Other Professional Services Businesses -- Today's Landscape -- It May Be Time to Consider a Sale or Merger -- What Drives Value?.

Is the Firm Still Just the Founder? -- Is Your Firm Strategic? -- Successor Considerations in a Merger or Acquisition -- Been There -- Done That -- Why Deals Don't Get Done-or Shouldn't -- Section III Emotional Challenges . . . and Solutions -- Chapter 8 It's Not Just an Office -- Know Your Personality -- The Office -- Successor Surprises -- The Fear of Being Wrong -- Successors Don't Want to Admit Being Scared -- It's Not a Light Switch -- The Slow-Motion Effect -- An Unfair Expectation: Successor as Advisor -- Progress, Not Perfection -- Chapter 9 Breaking Inertia -- Do We Have an Inertia Problem? -- The Four Choices -- Is Doing Nothing a Risk? -- How Does This Process Start? -- Can the Successor Start the Process? -- The Homework Assignment -- Successors Should Ask Hard Internal Questions -- Going All In -- Showing Progress -- Starting in the Future -- What's Next? -- Chapter 10 Derailed -- The Fear of Failure-Again -- Founderitis -- Life After the CEO Job -- Term Limits or Planned Rotation of Roles -- Optimism Bias -- Reality Distortion Field -- Hitting the Pause Button -- Necessary Endings -- Chapter 11 Building a Legacy -- What's in a Name? -- What's Your Title? -- Memorials -- The Finest Legacy -- Some Final Words -- Bibliography -- Supplemental Material -- Interviewee Biographies -- About the Authors -- Index -- EULA.