From the sense of loss to dignity in the generational transition: Markus Weishaupt analyzes what happens to entrepreneurs when the company is no longer their identity
There is a phrase that summarizes the existential condition of the entrepreneur better than any management manual: not cogito ergo sumbut entrepreneur ergo sum. I don’t think therefore I am, but I create therefore I am. This is the total identification – almost ontological – that Markus Weishaupt, consultant for family businesses, places at the center of his reflection on the most delicate moment in the life of those who lead a company: succession.
His essay, also born in the wake of the news of Wolfgang Grupp’s attempted suicide in July 2025, is not a biographical analysis nor a commentary on the news. Rather, it is a lens on the topic that too often remains removed: what happens when an entrepreneur is no longer the operational entrepreneur of his company? When the signature changes hands, but the identity remains anchored to the role?
Letting go is not “letting go”
In managerial rhetoric we talk about “letting go” as an essential discipline for the success of family businesses. But in reality, Weishaupt observes, total letting go is rare. More than abandoning, entrepreneurs must learn to change roleand above all to accept it.
It’s not about “laissez-faire”, disappearing and leaving the field free, but about moving from being decision makers to being members of a board, mentor, sparring partner, guardian of the vision. And here the structural difficulty emerges: the entrepreneur does not practice a profession, he is an entrepreneur. The identification is total. When this axis breaks down, the perception of meaning also falters.
The meaning of life after the business
Weishaupt recalls four dimensions of meaning identified by psychological studies: significance, belonging, orientation and coherence. The successful entrepreneur lives all four fully in his role. Your own company is not just a job: it is belonging to a class of creators, it is coherence between identity and action, it is daily orientation.
But what remains when that role disappears? Travelling, giving to charity, holding honorary positions: these are real alternatives, but for many entrepreneurs they are not sufficient. The risk is what the author defines with a strong term: becoming an “omissor”, someone who no longer creates because he sees his being an entrepreneur in a one-dimensional way, confined to the sole company founded or led for decades.
Yet the world needs precisely that experience: as a startup mentor, as a university professor, as a counselor, as an author, as a guide in social projects. The energy that built a business can build so much more.
Succession as mourning
Succession is almost never experienced as enrichment. It’s ambivalent: on the one hand pride for having handed the company over to the next generation, on the other, loss.
Weishaupt offers a bold but effective parallel to the process of mourning. Just as in mourning it is about establishing a new relationship with someone who is no longer there, so the entrepreneur must redefine the relationship with his company: accept that the previous relationship is over, that the bond changes shape.
Not only does the relationship with the company change, but also the relationship with children or successors. From son to CEO, from father to observer, possibly advisor. A passage that requires a deeper internal transformation than what corporate structures can regulate.
Dignity as a compass
Then there is an ethical, almost constitutional theme: dignity. Dignity is not only a right to be defended against third parties, but also a responsibility towards oneself. An entrepreneur who formally cedes power but maintains a role of “super-administrator”, who appoints his children but does not really let them guide, risks compromising not only governance, but his own internal coherence.
Clarity is the first act of dignity. No one can impose succession: neither consultants, nor family members, nor boards of directors. It can only arise from an authentic decision of the entrepreneur. The question, then, becomes simple and radical: which consequences are most sustainable? Hold on or pass the baton?
There is no room for hubris if the goal is to age significantly.
Time as a non-renewable resource
Weishaupt closes by recalling Seneca and the De Brevitate Vitae. Life is not short: we are the ones who waste it. Time is more precious than money, but people are stingy with money and generous with their time.
Time cannot be managed: it passes. Also for entrepreneurs. The difference is what you choose to do with the time you have left. Far-sighted entrepreneurs consciously reorganize priorities in the succession process, accept that the company evolves with new leadership styles and different strategies, and avoid unwanted interference that generates conflicts. They put their experience at the service of new projects.
Ultimately, the point is not to stop being entrepreneurs. It is rewriting the meaning of that “ergo sum”. Continue to create, but elsewhere. Continue to generate meaning, but without confusing identity with a single work. Because the company can change leadership. The entrepreneur, if he wants, can change shape.
