Un-Retire Like Tom Brady

In January of 2022 Tom Brady, looked to by many as one of the best (if not THE best) NFL quarterback of all time, retired. He had over 20 seasons in the NFL, 7 Super Bowl rings, was a 5 time Super Bowl MVP along with many more stats and accolades that show he was a competitor and winner. 

Nobody would blame him for retiring and enjoying life, nobody. His competitors would probably even invite it.

Here’s the twist, Tom has some unfinished business.

This week Tom Un-Retired to take care of that unfinished business. Winners, high achievers and business owners are, well, really bad at retiring. We have seen this for decades in the franchise arena.

Tom was dead center in my 6 month “Retirement gets old fast” or “My Wife locks me out of the house” timeframe. The day you retire sounds like you will have the time to do all the things you really want to do. For people that hated the work they did this is the ticket to freedom.

To those that liked being active and engaged in a business role this sounds good for a day, or a week then boredom sets in. You miss your team. You miss your customers. You miss challenges and solving problems. You miss being the Quarterback of your team and you know you still have wins ahead.

So what do you do? You want to compete, but maybe you don’t want an 80 hour work week and business travel. You want to compete and win but on your terms.

You have unfinished business.

On the other side, though, you promised your spouse that you would travel and see the world. You may have some personal bucket list items to check off.

Where can you find that balance?

Franchising

First, you know all those silos that corporate America loves to keep people in? The ones that limit growth and opportunity? Silos may have you thinking that the only option you have to retirement is going back to your old job or an underperforming “consulting” role that may give you 6 months of income.

Franchising has no silos. We know your management, sales, marketing, networking and problem-solving skills are totally transferable.

The key is in matching your skills to franchises that have systems built for those skills. Not all franchises require the same set of skills.

Are you a champion manager, a trophy winning sales pro or can you look at the field ahead of you and see the best plays to win at whatever game you play?

Take a personal inventory of those skills, it is what I do with all of the franchise candidates I coach. I find that in their own way, all of my candidates have a little G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all time) in them. They built a career on doing things they are particularly good at.

This personal inventory will give you a starting point to finding franchises that you can take an fill the role of the owner comfortably, with the best odds for success.

Next, give some thought to your goals. How do you want to work? What kind of lifestyle do you want to have while you build your business? Some are more hands on, others need owners to be in an executive or CEO type role.

In that CEO type role you can build a team that includes managers that largely run the business for you so that you can engage the business on terms that may help with the goals you may have outside the business like travel or spending time on projects that give back to your community.

There is nothing wrong with being hands-on in your business, but this is here you can leverage your time just like you can money. While you couldn’t hire someone to do your job as an employee, you can absolutely hire employees to run your business!

So, do you have unfinished business? Is retirement not the ticket to fulfillment that you thought it might be?

Just like Tom Brady, you can reverse that course and do the things you enjoy doing and still have a champions impact in the world of business.

The team you play on, the players you spend your time with and the coaches you have supporting you in your efforts can make the experience far more rewarding than whatever you retired from. While Tom had unfinished business, he only came back because he could identify that where he was returning to had all the right pieces in place.

Don’t forget to find experts coach you through the process, they can help find you the right team and players to support you as you go forward. They will be there for you when you have occasional frustrations or questions.

What is your success story? Let’s go find it!

George Knauf is a highly sought after, trusted advisor to many companies; Public, Independent and Franchised, of all sizes and in many markets. His 20 plus years of experience in both start-up and mature business operations makes him uniquely qualified to advise individuals that have dreamed of going into business for themselves in order to gain more control, independence, time flexibility and to be able to earn in proportion to their real contribution.

Contact the Franchising USA Expert George’s Hotline 703-424-2980.