Speaking openly about emotions as part of the process of selling and transferring (family) businesses, was very new in this time. Editors of (management) journals asked me to write articles on the subject. Banks offered my program to entrepreneurs, hoping they could distinguish themselves from the competition. I organized roundtables for Staalbankiers and gave lectures for Van Lanschot Bankiers. In 2003, I gave a presentation in Ahoy for 350 entrepreneurs at a Rabobank conference on mergers and acquisitions. I became a lecturer at de Baak's 'Successor Academy' targeting the next generation of family business leaders. And several entrepreneur clubs and employer organizations invited me to inform their members about my program 'Starting to Quit'.

Together with Jancees van Westering, creative management consultant and cartoonist at NRC Handelsblad, I organized a three day 'Starting to Quit' program in the south of France. His cartoons helped to clarify the personal and emotional processes: an image often says more words. All eight participants in the program were dealing with quitting, selling or transferring their business. The trip enlightened us all.