{"id":282496,"date":"2025-11-10T03:27:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/282496\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T03:27:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T03:27:13","slug":"after-selling-his-business-for-532-million-this-millennial-says-a-life-of-leisure-was-surprisingly-boring-so-hes-choosing-to-go-back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/282496\/","title":{"rendered":"After selling his business for $532 million, this millennial says a life of leisure was surprisingly \u2018boring\u2019, so he\u2019s choosing to go back to work"},"content":{"rendered":"

This millennial has a message for anyone who thinks a million-dollar windfall\u2014whether it\u2019s from the sale of their business or the $124 trillion Great Wealth Transfer<\/a>\u2014will solve all your problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If that was the case, Tom Grogan should have been living the dream. After cofounding Wingstop UK and selling a majority stake<\/a> for \u00a3400 million ($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\u2019t magically make life feel complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor seven years, your whole mind is occupied on making a success of this business,\u201d Grogan exclusively told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all you think about. And then when you get there, it\u2019s just a bit surreal. It\u2019s like, Okay, it\u2019s done now. Now what? And money doesn\u2019t necessarily fill that void either.\u201d<\/p>\n

After nearly a decade of building a UK brand from scratch\u2014including one cold email to Texas, 50 investor rejections, and 57 restaurants later\u2014he admits that navigating life after the sale is a whole other challenge.<\/p>\n

From $5 an hour builder to multimillionaire sounds like the dream\u2014but this founder says \u2018it\u2019s boring\u2019<\/p>\n

While Grogan\u2019s rise from a construction worker to a founder (all in his 20s) was meteoric, the transition from entrepreneur to multimillionaire has been\u2026 unexpectedly slow-paced, he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to now change your head from we\u2019re not business building anymore. We\u2019ve gone from being an entrepreneur to managing money\u2014and they\u2019re two different skill sets,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we have to discover the world of financial instruments, stocks, bonds\u2014all of that stuff that\u2019s all new to us, but we\u2019re being strategically careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of rushing to buy a mansion or a fleet of fast cars, Grogan added that he\u2019s still renting. And along with his cofounders Herman Sahota and Saul Lewin, the trio gave the first half of this year to sit back and start thinking about what they want to do next.<\/p>\n

But one thing is for sure: He won\u2019t be resting on his laurels, enjoying the fruits of his labour and riding off into the sunset any time soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s boring,\u201d Grogan adds. \u201cI can\u2019t live life sat on a beach. I think we need something to occupy our minds, to challenge ourselves. You need a purpose every day to wake up for, which we don\u2019t have right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s why he\u2019s already planning to get back to the grind\u2014he doesn\u2019t know what his next venture will be, \u201cbut it probably won\u2019t be in the world of food and beverages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Chesky called the Airbnb<\/a> IPO \u2018one of the saddest periods\u2019 of his life<\/p>\n

Grogan isn\u2019t alone in feeling the emptiness that can follow a massive milestone. Years of relentless focus and sweat poured into a single venture can leave a strange void when it\u2019s suddenly past the finish line.<\/p>\n

In fact, Brian Chesky cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, previously admitted that his company\u2019s IPO\u2014despite making him a billionaire\u2014was \u201cone of the saddest periods<\/a>\u201d of his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing up, Chesky admits he \u201cdesperately wanted to be successful\u201d because he thought it would bring him adoration. Plus, having social worker parents who were by no standards rich, he also thought a large sum of money could \u201csolve every problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had this image that if I got successful I\u2019d have all these people around me, all these friends, I\u2019d have all this love, all this everything, and my life would be fixed,\u201d he told Armchair Expert podcast.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

But actually, when Airbnb hit that $100 billion valuation and \u201ceveryone in high school\u201d knew what he did, he was lonelier than ever, having poured all his energy into his work for up to 18 hours a day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the bottom of the mountain, you have hope,\u201d he concludes of his journey from scrappy start-up founder to billionaire. \u201cBut the problem is when you get to the top of the mountain oftentimes you are at the top by yourself, disconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This millennial has a message for anyone who thinks a million-dollar windfall\u2014whether it\u2019s from the sale of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[42795,21653,139927,28,524,337,2813,149335,4759,259,20233,21652,1432],"class_list":["post-282496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-airbnb","tag-and-wellness","tag-brian-chesky","tag-business","tag-career-advice","tag-fitness","tag-happiness","tag-how-i-made-my-first-million","tag-ipos","tag-mental-health","tag-millionaires","tag-personal-health","tag-wealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}