As we rejoin John Randolph’s conversation with Adam Boatsman on Episode 96 of CPA Life, we learn that Adam didn’t set out to sell BGW. He just wanted to be able to take a two-week ski vacation, realizing he’d built a firm too dependent on him to allow it. That single, honest admission cracks open a wider conversation about what it actually takes to build something that survives its founder. Adam traces the real story behind BGW’s private equity partnership with Ascend, born less from financial pressure than from a succession plan that surprised him. He talks candidly about diminishing returns past 60-hour weeks, the myth that people quit jobs they hate rather than places that exhaust them, and the uncomfortable math AI is forcing onto every compliance-driven firm.