oday's guest did not want to return to his corporate path as a software executive.

At age 52, Tom McCormick was coming off a stint as the general manager of a PE-owned software business that exited. He had enjoyed the autonomy of the role.

"After having so much control over where a company went and what they did," said Tom, "going back to kinda the pride-swallowing role within a larger machine really didn't appeal to me."

So when Tom read Buy Then Build, "it was a parting of the clouds."

Tom bought a concrete cutting and coring business — opposite end of the spectrum from selling corporate software.

And boy, it's going well.

Not explosive growth, but the transition was successful, the business is stable, and Tom is improving it — incrementally, sensitive to how change needs to be digested by the 2-decade-old organization.

We spend a lot of time on Tom's deal structure.

Listen for how a little reframing with the seller moved the transaction forward where it would otherwise have died.

His adaptability here may be why today he's owner of a business while some of his would-be business owner buddies are 5 years deep in their search.

Here is Tom McCormick, owner of Quality Cutting and Coring.