[bruce511]

agreed. I think IPO is the opposite of "take it easy" (gotta keep that stock price up quarter by quarter.)

acquisition is also "long term". Usually there's months involved before hand, and months, if not years, hitting targets after acquisition to actually get the fully agreed-to payout.

Equally, sure, I agree, there's seldom a "can take it easy" moment running a profitable business, but over the same sort of time frames as IPO and acquisition you can certainly "wake up" and realize that all that hard work is now paying off. Once a company is in the black, for multiple years, and has accumulated "large enough" reserves, and you're not putting out fires three times a week, it can certainly feel like retirement (financial independence) is getting closer...