I've tried writing this comment multiple times and I'm struggling to find a way to explain it well. We sold our company[1] and part of the sale terms were we would be retained as the "managers" of the products (websites) and I always approached the sale as: "We take their money, they use their experience and assets to increase the value of the products and we continue to manage the product" and in theory that's what happened, unfortunately I made one big mistake: I didn't at any point realise how much control (freedom) mattered.
The company that acquired us is fine and I have no problems with them in any way and I enjoy my job, but it's just so different to how it was before. I guess a good real world comparison is renting vs. owning, if you own your home you can paint the walls, install a new floor or turn an entire wall into a television. When you're renting you're limited to very insignificant and inconsequential things, you can move around your sofas, have red plates instead of blue and get a new desk, but what sort of control is that? It's all cosmetic.
If I ever sell a company again I will absolutely make sure that the sale is the end of my involvement. If I wake up in the morning and have control I can think "today I'm going to make my company so fucking awesome, yeah!" because the sky is the limit, but as an employee it's just "oh, today I'm going to work... my goals are x and I can't change that" and when the former was previously possible and is no longer an option it's very depressing. I guess depressing is a dramatic word, but that's how it feels. Maybe stifling would be better, or trapped.
[1] I say company but the company was just for the sake of legalities, we didn't have an office or any formal structure, we just ran a couple of websites.
(I've been thinking about this for a while now and this blog post reminded me how I felt, sorry if the comment is too off-topic)
The company that acquired us is fine and I have no problems with them in any way and I enjoy my job, but it's just so different to how it was before. I guess a good real world comparison is renting vs. owning, if you own your home you can paint the walls, install a new floor or turn an entire wall into a television. When you're renting you're limited to very insignificant and inconsequential things, you can move around your sofas, have red plates instead of blue and get a new desk, but what sort of control is that? It's all cosmetic.
If I ever sell a company again I will absolutely make sure that the sale is the end of my involvement. If I wake up in the morning and have control I can think "today I'm going to make my company so fucking awesome, yeah!" because the sky is the limit, but as an employee it's just "oh, today I'm going to work... my goals are x and I can't change that" and when the former was previously possible and is no longer an option it's very depressing. I guess depressing is a dramatic word, but that's how it feels. Maybe stifling would be better, or trapped.
[1] I say company but the company was just for the sake of legalities, we didn't have an office or any formal structure, we just ran a couple of websites.
(I've been thinking about this for a while now and this blog post reminded me how I felt, sorry if the comment is too off-topic)