Playground to the Exit Sign: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Escaping the Hamster Wheel

By Robert Church

Entrepreneurship is sold as freedom. Then it hands you responsibility-usually before breakfast.

From the Playground to the Exit Sign is a clear-eyed guide to building a business that works in the real world: under uncertainty, under pressure, and with the inconvenient constraint that you are a human being-not a motivational quote with a calendar.

Drawing on more than three decades of business experience across corporate leadership and founder-led ventures (bootstrapped and private-equity-backed), Robert Church treats entrepreneurship as what it actually is: applied judgment. You will learn how to choose the right problem, position your value so the market can recognize it, build a model that survives the math, and earn customers through evidence-not hope.

This book also covers what most advice skips:

How to operate when everything is uncertain (and still make measurable progress)Why "busy" is not the same as profitable-and how to escape the busy-but-broke trapMoney pressure, capital decisions, and why a "multi-million-dollar exit" can still leave a founder with far less than expectedThe legal and tax foundations that prevent expensive problems laterSystems, delegation, and scaling without breaking quality, culture, or marginsThe long game: identity, resilience, and building an asset that creates optionality instead of consuming it

If you want inspiration, there are plenty of books for that. If you want a practical framework for building a durable business-and keeping your judgment intact while you do it-this book is for you.

You don't need a secret. You need a method.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GTTKQYMW
• ISBN13: 9798253441398
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 78 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"