I went back to business school last month after a gap of nearly 17 years when I attended a programme entitled ‘Breaking Barriers to Growth’ put together by the London Business School for 70 members of the Entrepreneur’s Organisation. It was an intensive three-and-a-half day course that focused on the challenges entrepreneurs face when they have to transition to the next level in their businesses.

Given the fact that we had entrepreneurs from more than 20 countries present in the classroom during the programme, it gave me a fantastic opportunity to sit back and appreciate the journey each one has had to climb. While flying back to Dubai after this course, I had some time for introspection on what I’ve learnt over my years as an entrepreneur and what I’ve observed by being associated with other like-minded business owners.

What I realised is that the life of an entrepreneur is like that of a hamster running inside a wheel. The wheel keeps spinning while we’re in it but the pace and direction at which it moves is determined by what we’re running towards, where we’re running now and what we’ve left behind. Thus we have the three stages of an entrepreneur’s life.

The first stage of what we’re running towards in the hamster wheel is that next opportunity which most of us are looking for. We’ve all got this urge to look at what could be the business of the future. We’ve understood over time the cyclical nature of what we do and we, after a period of time, look for a new challenge that excites us because if you are not excited by what you do, you aren’t satisfied.

It is easier to build something for the future while you’ve got something to pay the bills at the moment ... so consider this stage as a part-time job.

The second stage is where we’re running now. It is the ability to recognise we have a business that sustains us. The bread-and-butter of what pays the bills helps grow yourself, your business and provides for your family. The pace at which we’re running now is dependent on where we are in our lives.

Someone who is in their 20s may be running at a blinding pace but without a sense of purpose. Someone in their 20s, 40s and part of their 50, is running with more sense in their stride because they’ve got a family to provide for and an opportunity to build for the future.

Someone beyond these age groups is probably slowing down to some extent the pace they run at because by then they have provided for their family and it is about enjoying what their life is about. The sustaining business at this stage may have been something you started or something you inherited, but grew to the next level, which over a period you feel you could hand over to someone else.

In the third stage, where you have the portion of the wheel that you left behind, you realise as an entrepreneur that there is a time and place for every business, and recognising which business is past its due date is as important a skill as knowing which new business to start or sustain.

There are sentiments, partnerships and emotions involved with every entrepreneur’s business, but there is a time when cold-rational thinking eventually has to kick in to decide when to call it a day. It may be that you have lost the passion for a business or that you realise it may not sustain itself in the long term. While we are open to change, sometimes the change comes in form of exiting a business altogether.

The fact is most entrepreneurs are sitting in this hamster wheel. Giving yourself the time to take stock of where your life is important. Most of us are so busy with day-to-day challenges life throws us that we don’t realise when we start running backwards on the hamster wheel instead of forward. By forcing yourself to take time out for yourself, you begin to see things that should have been abundantly clear that you were never able to visualise earlier.

It is common to hear entrepreneurs say they are at a certain stage in their life. It’s my belief entrepreneurs are actually in three stages of their life, which is what to do next, what they are doing today and what they wish they weren’t doing anymore.

The quicker as an entrepreneur you can recognise this, the greater the purpose you start to find in your journey as an entrepreneur.

The writer is a former President of the Entrepreneur’s Organisation — UAE Chapter. He currently serves as a Governance Director and is a part of the EMEA Regional Council for the Entrepreneur’s Organisation.