Abstract

The Emotional Cost of Success: Entrepreneurial Identity Challenges After Successful
Entrepreneurial Exits
Maryna Byezhanova
Despite the financial upside of selling a business, the majority of entrepreneurs report
post-exit regret, pointing to a substantial but poorly understood emotional burden. Yet research
on founders’ post-sale experiences is limited, and most exit planning frameworks focus on legal,
operational, and financial readiness while overlooking identity and emotional adjustment. This
study addresses this gap by investigating how entrepreneurs experience and navigate identity
reconstruction following a successful business exit. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with North
American founders who exited within the past five years, the analysis draws on Fauchart and
Gruber’s (2011) identity typology and the Kübler-Ross (1969) grief model to explore post-exit
adjustment. Participants reported emotional trajectories that aligned with grief stages, with
depression emerging as the most prevalent experience across identities; its form, trigger, and
resolution varied by founder’s identity type, which shaped distinct patterns of loss and recovery.
The study extends Fauchart and Gruber's (2011) identity framework into the post-exit context,
demonstrates the applicability of the Kübler-Ross (1969) grief model to voluntary, financially
successful exits, and empirically shows that financial gain does not mitigate the grief-like
process. Practically, the findings highlight the need for early emotional preparation, well before
the exit process is formally underway, and offer practitioners a diagnostic framework for
assessing identity needs and tailoring pre-exit support accordingly.