The recipe changes hands

A meal has value. But once eaten, it is gone.

The recipe is different. It contains what someone learned through years of trying, failing, adjusting and eventually getting it right. A business is much the same.

An entrepreneur spends decades building the recipe. Then, when it is time to sell, an entire industry appears around the transaction — brokers, advisers, lawyers, accountants and financiers.

Most are paid for the meal. The seller and the buyer are different.

One spent years creating the recipe. The other will have to make it work tomorrow.

Perhaps they should talk to each other a little more.