You’ve probably heard about the exit strategy. Sure, a few years ago, only professional investors asked about them; these days, everybody’s pitching the exit strategy. The good news is that most of my clients come to me and ask about their exit strategy. The bad news is that my clients don’t need an exit strategy: what they, and all entrepreneurs, need is a life strategy. The problem is that having an exit strategy, per se, doesn’t directly help anyone. Well, it may help your investors, if you have investors, and if you picked an exit strategy specifically for them. But other than that, an exit strategy is only a means to an end. The end is: getting what you want. That’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur, really – you are finally the one in charge of picking how everything gets to end up for you. Take advantage of that mighty power. My friend Freddy reminded me of a great blog entry he wrote last year: “Why Exit Strategies are Bad for Business.” His basic message is that you need to be committed to your start-up, not leave it. Well, that’s true for some people, and not true for others. Don’t build your company around your exit strategy: build your company and your exit around your life strategy. Let’s take an example: do you want a guaranteed job for the rest of your life? Then you need what the pros call  a “walking harvest” – a plan that has you drawing a salary and perhaps dividends from a company that operates for years – rather than focusing on getting a single chunk of money. Do your investors want something different? Don’t change your whole plan to make them happy, realize that your exit strategy differs from theirs. If you can’t put yourself in a position to stay while they get their exit, then you need to accept that you need a premium on your exit to make ending up with no job worthwhile. Want to get out in a few years to spend more time with your family? Plan now to put yourself in a position to either sell your company or have it run without you – both are equally acceptable exits from the point of view of your life strategy. How do you develop your life strategy? Well, that’s the big challenge, but it’s worth confronting that from the launch of your business. After all, you shouldn’t just have the exit you want; you should have the work you want, too, every day. So take a step back and take the time to articulate your preferences, beliefs, and goals, because you may need to think bigger, strategy-wise: you may need to think about your whole life.