Not only did Joe Kirby want to retire by age 40, but he never planned to work for the family business in the first place.

“I had little intent of being pulled into the family business,” said Joe, former CEO of Sioux Falls-based Western Surety Company, “and I think the gravity of a business like that eventually sucks people in.”

His great-grandfather founded the business in 1900, and Joe joined in the 1970s along with three other members of the fourth generation.

“We ran it for a while, and then we sold it,” Joe said. “And, no regrets. It was a good decision.”

He was in his late 30s at that time, and, with the sale of the business, Joe was able to retire when he was just 43 years old.

“I wanted to retire young because I think…there’s a lot about life that’s important, and making money is an early thing to get done,” he said. “And then, as soon as you can, get out.”

Joe, along with Mike Wells of Wells Blue Bunny and Craig Snyder of VIKOR Teleconstruction and Pomegranate Market, recently spoke at a private event about life after retiring from a family business.

Former family business leaders Mike Wells, Craig Snyder, and Joe Kirby.

The event was recorded for an episode of our podcast, Common Cents on the Prairie™.

Collectively, the three former CEOs discussed building a legacy both within and outside of the family business and shared their advice for finding purpose in retirement.

Building legacy, family, and a family business

“In 1977, I graduated high school, married my 17-year-old high school sweetheart, started full-time at Wells, and started full-time at college,” Mike said. “So anything in our life…the answer is always: it happened in 1977.”

Also in 1977, Mike and his wife, Cheryl, were expecting their first child.

“I had a baby on the way,” he said. “I needed a job, and I needed an education.”

Then, his dad gave him the best career advice Mike has ever received.

“Early on, he said, ‘Don’t ever ask somebody to do something you’re not willing to do yourself,’” Mike said. “And so I took that to heart.”

He took on a full class load at college while simultaneously working 70 hours a week in the family business — doing every job from driving trucks to working in factories.

“I did everything I could to support our young family and to learn as much as I could about the business,” Mike said.

Mike was among the third generation to work at Wells Enterprises, the maker of Blue Bunny ice cream based in Le Mars, Iowa. He took the helm as CEO in 2007.

While Mike was carrying on the family legacy, Craig was building a legacy of his own.

“I grew up fairly humble, and I thought my way up and out was entrepreneurship,” Craig said.

In his early 20s, he started looking for opportunities.

“I almost got into the video rental business,” Craig said. “So, thankfully, that didn’t work out.”

In the meantime, he worked as a tower climber.

“I’m just trying to make my way through college with a good paying job and adventure some, climbing up high on these TV towers,” Craig said. “And the fellow that I was working for died in a car crash, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s my opportunity.’ So I started VIKOR Teleconstruction all those years ago.”

Leaving the family business

The decision to leave the family business came naturally for Joe. He made it in tandem with his fourth-generation counterparts.

“There were four of us that bought the business, and two wanted out at some point,” he said. “The other two of us thought, ‘Are we going to leverage up and buy them out, or are we all just going to take the opportunity to get out?’”

According to Joe, they were all happy with the decision to sell and viewed it as the right thing for their family and the business.

“We survived four generations, which is incredible,” he said. “You beat the odds to go that long.”

Mike also made the decision to sell the family business, although he was the sole family member running Wells Enterprises at the time.

“I realized that staying too long is detrimental to either the person or the company,” he said. “I felt like staying too long as CEO, you either get burned out or you get complacent.”

He set a retirement date for November 11, 2022 — exactly 15 years after he became CEO.

“So we’re rolling into 2019, 2020, and I’m saying to my family, ‘Well, the date’s coming. What do you want to do?’” he said.

The family shareholders agreed to sell, and by 2022 a deal was in place with Giovanni Ferrero.

Yes, Ferrero, as in the third largest chocolate company in the world.

“My daughter was getting married on November 11, 2022, and I’m sitting on the beach in Jamaica as she gets married, with that cellphone in my hand, negotiating the final deal point,” Mike recalled. “They say every deal dies three times. This one died five.”

Finally, the deal went through, and “it was making good on the promise that I had made to my family about finding a solution for them,” Mike said.

Ironically, Craig— who had set out to build a business that he could sell — was the only of the three who passed the family business on to the next generation.

“In the early days, I didn’t think my family was going to get into the business,” Craig said. “I was building it to sell.”

He added, “Well, then my kids turned into their 20s, and one came into the business and then another. And, you know, over that decade from their early 20s until 30s, it started to make sense that they would just take over.”

Craig’s son-in-law is currently the chief financial officer at VIKOR, and one of his sons runs assets and equipment for the business.

Another of his sons is president of Pomegranate Market.

“It wasn’t a plan, but it turned out to be a beautiful thing,” Craig said.

Finding purpose in retirement

“In the early days, I was very much driven, you know, by success, by growth of the company, by building net worth, for a hope for exit someday,” Craig said. “And so, I was always just chugging along, trying to make the very best of everything that came in front of me.”

Recently retired after leading VIKOR for 36 years, Craig is still test-driving his new purpose.

“[My] purpose might’ve been more financial, more success driven, but throughout, I kept trying to also serve God, serve my family, serve my church, things like that,” Craig said.

He remains chairman at VIKOR and minority owner at Pomegranate Market but says he has some projects currently in the works.

“I’m still 61 years old,” Craig said. “I still have a lot of years left ahead of me, but I don’t have the full purpose figured out yet.”

Lucky for Craig, Mike and Joe had advice to offer him and others gearing up for retirement.

“Because I retired young, I watched a lot of my peers struggle as they got older and they approached retirement,” Joe said. “And, honestly, most people fail miserably, because they have a fantasy.”

Maybe those people take up golf or tennis for a while, until an injury takes them out of the game.

“They need to think it through a little bit more and really have a deeper purpose, I think, beyond just having fun,” Joe said.

Mike agreed, stating that retirement is not about bettering your golf game, traveling, or laying on beaches.

Both Joe and Mike have found their deepest purpose through giving back to their communities.

For Joe, that’s Sioux Falls. For Mike, it’s Le Mars.

“My generation of the family got into community service early on,” Joe said. “We all served on boards, got to know what was going on in the community. I was actually involved in writing the city charter in Sioux Falls when we still had the business.”

Because he had planted those roots early on, Joe never lost his purpose even when he left the family business.

“My wife and I, in recent years, we talk about our mission, and it’s basically to find things that would not happen but for us,” he said. “…We provide both leadership and, as necessary, wealth to make good things happen in the community.”

Mike’s purpose, similarly, did not change in retirement.

“About 10 years ago, I wrote a personal mission statement,” Mike said, “and that was to get up every day and do something that really needed done…but making sure that it benefited somebody else besides myself.”

He and Cheryl now operate a community development business. They own 35 properties in Le Mars, about half of which are historic and in need of restoration.

“We’re turning those buildings into art, and we are incubating first-time businesses that are creating jobs and driving the economic development of our community,” Mike said. “And we’re having a blast doing it.”

He’s on to something, too: retirement should be a blast, but the fun needs to be more than just surface level.

“Fun lasts for about six months before you start feeling empty, if you don’t have other things that you are really passionate about,” Joe said. “So find those before you retire.”

You can learn more about the business and retirement journeys of Joe Kirby, Craig Snyder, and Mike Wells by watching the full episode of Common Cents on the Prairie below. Or, listen on Apple Podcasts or your favorite streaming app.

And if you’d like help preparing for your own retirement, send a note to our team at First National Wealth Management. We’d be happy to have a conversation!

Any comments, insights, or strategies discussed in this article are intended to be general in nature and, therefore, may not be suitable for you and your situation, whatever that may be. Before acting on anything written here, please consult with your attorney, CPA, and/or your financial advisor.