Derek Bullard sold his first company at 42. He had money, young twins, time to travel and coach soccer. Within 90 days he was miserable, and he spent the next year in a depression he couldn’t explain to anyone, least of all himself.

In this conversation with Lee, Derek talks about what he wishes he’d planned before that exit. He picked the buyer mostly on valuation, when the partner, the arrangement afterwards and what he’d do with his days mattered just as much. On every exit since, he’s mapped it out first.

He also shares the night in 2008 when his company went from making money to losing millions a year, with his house on the line for the loan. The only way through was telling his team the truth, and he says that honesty did more for the business than anything he’d tried to hide.

Plus the stretch of his early career he can’t remember. A former employee recently thanked him for lunches they had years ago, and Derek has no memory of them. He was so stressed and so short on sleep that whole parts of the journey are gone.

Derek became a foster parent at 22, taking in a boy for what was meant to be three days. It became four years and changed the course of his life. Today he’s CEO of Already Autism Health, with around 1,400 staff across seven states.

More from Derek: alreadyautismhealth.com

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