It's not easy to grasp the idea of a retirement date, says Evergreen Consulting's Brent Grover in the MDM Audio Conference, Succession Planning: Leaving Your Business Better."This is very long-range planning,"he says.

Grover went through the same thing in 1982. At that time, he was working in the family's distribution business founded by his grandfather. The second generation needed to set a retirement date.

Grover compared the situation to a Patek Philippe watch ad: "Their advertisement says that you never actually own one, you merely look after it for the next generation."

Some companies operate that way, and "live"to pass the company on to the next generation. "I was fortunate that I came from a family that did plan,"Grover says.