Odd how for cerebral Julie, the epiphanies came through her body. PUSH THROUGH THE PAIN. STRETCH THE EASY SIDE FIRST. TAKE ONE PEDAL AT A TIME.

They all started as vivid, fully physical experiences – childbirth, dance, cycling up mountains – but became metaphors for the hard stuff: the emotional travails.

Or maybe it wasn’t that. Maybe instead, Julie already had the cerebral insights when she was young and sedentary. She’d been a hyper-bright child, a voracious reader and a tireless debater. Perhaps by the time she was grown she was immune to most of the intellectual insights – been there/done that – and only the blood-sweat-&-tears of exertion impressed her.

For Julie middle-aged was athletic: heroic. She’d always been ethical, but in her 40s she was inspired to exercise and in her 50s she was driven to action. She ought to have had a costume, she was such a brave character.

Her challenges were emotional. Like someone with a hidden disability, Julie on the surface seemed nothing but blessed. Her parents, siblings, children, and close friends were all alive and at least well. Her spirit dwelled in a healthy skeleton and her brain produced plenty of serotonin. She never had trouble earning enough money, and she lived in the house of her dreams.

But she was surrounded by assassins at work (that’s what she said daily, when frustrated). Her colleagues were either morons or saboteurs. And she seemed to collect stresses at home. She wasn’t comfortable playing cards for money, but she hadn’t hesitated much before marrying (three times) or adopting difficult dogs (four times).

She was a specialist in managing conflicts of interest. Her last husband was still a client. Her business partners were her sisters-in-law. Her daughter had married Julie’s second husband’s first son (they’d only been step-sibs for three years, and because Keith was in college then, they’d never lived together as family).

The office situation was surreal. It was always Julie’s baby but early on she hired some girlfriends. That’s how her brothers met Beth and Sharon, although by the time the weddings took place, Julie had indulged her own liberal leanings and made the women minority owners in her management consulting firm. So Beth and Sharon were business partners as well as family. And Julie, again acting the Pollyanna liberal, had compensated Beth and Sharon more than their work was worth (this was not nepotism – Julie overpaid non-family, too, always with the aim of avoiding trouble).

Two mistakes. Handing over ownership did not partners make. Beth and Sharon enjoyed telling others that they were principals in the firm, but neither of them stepped up and shared responsibility or risk. Even when Julie nagged at them to help set policy they each said something like: “Speak up with my small ownership? My 10%? No way…”

And overpaying them didn’t avoid trouble. In fact it may have caused it. Beth and Sharon understood at the beginning what the deal was – extra money as it came in but no resale value for the shares – but each seemed to forget that as the years passed, and started acting like she was getting away with something, taking money for relatively little work, which led to nervousness and unhappiness that could only be relieved with more money. Or maybe they just felt trapped in their jobs, knowing that they couldn’t earn as much anywhere else, and blamed Julie for the entrapment.

Whatever it was, Julie at 54 found herself overworked and resentful. She was determined to do something so she could have time. After serious contemplation, she decided the only way to exit gracefully was to turn the business over, over time, to a worthy competitor. There would be no sale, because she knew from experience that a sales price for a service business comes out of the employees’ increased sweat or the clients’ increased fees. Beth and Sharon? They’d never brought in any new business, but they resisted change. They wanted to work another five years, and they liked the situation the way it was. If there was going to be a switch they wanted a conventional percent-of-gross buyout. But Julie was determined not to give them more money: dig into her own pocket to purchase her own clients to give them away? She wasn’t going to make the third mistake.