Play the season you are in.

principle — attributed to Don Welsh

Welsh lost Jean, his wife of forty-four years, last October. He declined the board's push to stay several more years and committed only through 2027, and this fall he will fly around the world for a single day to stand with his college team fifty years on. Seasons are finite and unlike one another, and the only way to play one is all the way through. The executive who cannot name what season they are in usually stays one season too long.

For leaders weighing a next term, a next role, or a graceful exit. The question is not what more you could accomplish, but what season the people around you — family, team, board — are actually in, and whether the calendar honors that.

seasons, succession, life-integration, finitude