This millennial has a message for anyone who thinks a million dollar windfall—whether it’s the sale of their business or the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer—will solve all your problems.
If that was the case, Tom Grogan must have been living the dream. After founding Wingstop UK and selling majority shares for 400 million pounds ($532 million), most people would expect him to wake up every day feeling on top of the world. But the reality? Far from it. Wealth didn’t magically make life feel full.
“For seven years, your whole mind was occupied with making this business a success,” Grogan said exclusively. Fortune.
“It’s all you think about. And then when you get there, it’s just a little bit surreal. It’s like, OK, it’s done.” what now And money doesn’t necessarily fill that void.
After almost a decade of building the UK brand from scratch – including one cold email. letter in Texas, 50 investor rejections and 57 restaurants later, he admits that life after sales is a whole other challenge.
Going from a $5-an-hour builder to a multi-millionaire sounds like a dream, but this founder says ‘it’s boring’
While Grogan’s rise from builder to founder (all in his 20s) was unexpected, the transition from entrepreneur to multi-millionaire was … unexpectedly slow, he admitted.
“Now you have to change your head because we’re not building a business anymore. We’ve gone from being an entrepreneur to managing money – and those are two different skill sets,” he said. “So we have to discover the world of financial instruments, stocks, bonds – all this is new to us, but we are strategically cautious.
Instead of rushing to buy a mansion or a fleet of fast cars, Grogan added, he’s still renting. Together with its founders Herman Sahota and Saul Lewin, the trio allowed the first half of this year to step back and start thinking about what they want to do next.
But one thing is for sure: he will not rest on his laurels, he will enjoy the fruits of his labor and ride off into the sunset soon.
“It’s boring,” Grogan adds. “I can’t live sitting on the beach. I think we need something to occupy our minds, to challenge ourselves. We need a goal to wake up to every day, which we don’t have right now.”
For that reason, he’s already planning to go back to basics — he doesn’t know what his next venture will be, “but it probably won’t be in the food and beverage world.”
Brian Chesky called Airbnb’s IPO “one of the saddest times” in his life
Grogan is not alone in feeling the void that can come after a huge milestone. Years of relentless focus and sweat poured into one company can leave a strange void when the finish line has suddenly passed.
In fact, Airbnb founder and CEO Brian Chesky previously admitted that his company’s IPO — despite making him a billionaire — was “one of the saddest times” of his life.
Growing up, Chesky admits he was “desperate to be successful” because he thought it would bring him adoration. Also, having social worker parents who were extremely wealthy, he also believed that a large sum of money could “solve every problem”.
“I had this image that if I was successful, I would have all these people around me, all these friends, all this love, all this, and my life would be sorted,” he said. Armchair expert podcast.
But in reality, when Airbnb reached a $100 billion valuation and “everyone in high school” knew what he was doing, he was more alone than ever, devoting all his energy to working up to 18 hours a day.
“There’s hope at the bottom of the mountain,” concludes his journey from scrappy startup founder to billionaire. “But the problem is, when you get to the top of the mountain, you’re often alone, disconnected.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com