10 GERMINATION.CA NOVEMBER 2017 AT 61, DAVID ROURKE is a busy man with a rock-solid work ethic and huge dreams. What else can you say about someone who founded Ag-Quest, which has become a major provider of agricultural research services in Canada? Rourke started the business in Minto, Man., in 1983, as a way of paying the bills while he worked to make a living from his true passion — farming. He was 27 at the time. His life was hectic, but full. A year later, he was hospitalized for exhaustion. The stress of running Ag-Quest, farming and raising a family had obviously caught up to him. “That made it clear to me I couldn’t do so much. I had to come up with a strategy of empowering people to leverage my ambitions,” he says. The health scare got him on the road to succession planning. Even though he wasn’t quite 30 yet, he began the slow and meticulous pro- cess of preparing for the future. He quickly learned how fraught with bumps and potholes that road often is. “We tried bringing some people in from outside to help with things, but we never had much luck with that as far as senior management roles went. So I decided to pick people from inside, give them some more training and direction, and they always responded very well. I learned early that your employees are your biggest asset.” Life can be stressful for business owners wanting to retire. David Rourke and Dana Maxwell’s approach to succession planning is a good model to follow to help you look ahead. Marc Zienkiewicz WHERE’STHEEXIT? Dana Maxwell is now president and CEO of Ag-Quest, after taking the business over from her dad, David Rourke. Photo by Anna Latimer