Christian Bateson was miserable. Peeling himself out of bed at 3:30 every morning to sleepwalk to his desk at a toxic firm. He was under-slept. Over-boozed. Dying inside. In Christian's words: "That was like the darkest hour of my life, where I just couldn't see a way out of it. And I remember thinking, I'm 40, if I could just grind for like another 20 years, just put my head down and grind, then I can retire." Well, today Christian is almost 5 years into ownership of a business he bought, a construction cleaning company. They clean up the site when a construction project finishes. It did almost $4m last year. It's projected to almost double to $7.5m this year. And most importantly, Christian has rediscovered himself. Optimism, fulfillment, autonomy. His life makes sense again. Now, regular listeners of Acquiring Minds know that we try to feature a balance of stories here, including the dark ones, the fetal position moments. We don't oversell the dream. But not today. Christian's story is an unqualified, full-throated celebration of our path. Of entrepreneurship through acquisition. Enjoy.