The time for transition in your family business is approaching. Succession is at hand, and the new generation is poised to take the reins…

If you are anything like me, you will have thoughts, and even concerns, about what your life will be like after you relinquish control of your business and begin the process of a personal transition. You may find yourself asking “What’s next?” What role will I play going forward?”

While most of us will have many productive years following transition, for many there will be a strong sense of loss. At times we may find ourselves facing a kind of vacuum as we come to realize what we don’t have anymore.

From person to person, responses to this crisis differ. Some lament this changed relationship, expressed in statements like “it’s hard getting older.” Others embrace a more positive outlook, variously regarding “getting older” as a curiosity, an awe-inspiring process, a new challenge.

In a recent OpEd article for the New York Times, Oliver Sachs wrote about his diagnosis of terminal cancer and his perspective on the future, stating that he now wanted to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way he can. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/opinion/oliver-sacks-on-learning-he-has-terminal-cancer.html)

Perhaps akin to being at the top of a roller coaster or setting off on a downhill ski run, letting go is difficult. Certainly there are things I have enjoyed that I can’t do anymore, but this fact does not take anything important away from who I am now.

The ending of years of leadership in the family business is also a new beginning. It is a different beginning than that of youth, and daunting in different ways. But seen in a truly justifiable positive light, this start holds an earned advantage–a worldview and wisdom gained from experience; an equanimity and balance achieved by facing both triumph and disaster and coming through. Many traditional cultures have respected and asked guidance of their elders for just these reasons.

Given the know-how and inner solidity acquired over years of effort, the personal transition of building a newly significant life as an “elder” can perhaps be seen as a truly worthy challenge.