So let's go to what are the elements of a successful deal? What do you need to see to get this thing rolling?

Well, there's really three aspects of it.

And the book starts off with this, and it's a little unusual for an M&A book to start this way, but it deals with the emotions.

Business owners who have created a company or grown up so very substantially are emotionally committed to that company.

It's like another child and they are a little hesitant about exposing it to the world.

They don't like being judged by it.

And there's also a very personal element for some sellers as to who am I if I don't own my company? When I go to the country club or go to a business meeting and I put a label on my chest and it says Sharon Heaton, but there's no company name, have I lost something there? So people really need to understand that there's going to be a change.

Talk to me about valuations.

How did-

Let, let, let me put a little context around that.

Mary had this dis- personal disaster and turned it into both a personal and professional success, and that is an unbelievable thing to have achieved.

She built a company, I think as you put in the beginning, Nick, with over 1,300 people, and many of these people were people who had not had jobs for a long time.

I'm not sure I'm giving away too much by saying, Mary, you kind of came at this with a social work mentality.

You were the classic wanting to do well by doing good.

And so that doing good was extremely important, and it motivated the value system of the entity that created a platform that you were able to grow it over time.

And talk to us a little bit about that and how you, how you view that.