The Back Nine

FROM THE CEO WHO LED THE COMPANY THAT MADE TIDE PODS A REALITY, THEN HAD TO FIGURE OUT WHO HE WAS WITHOUT IT.

P. Scott Bening led MonoSol for 33 years, sold it to Kuraray, and planned to stay three years to manage the transition. He stayed ten.

Stepping away proved harder than expected. After decades spent building a company around its people and culture, the decisions suddenly belonged to someone else.

The Back Nine follows that transition from CEO to advisor, mentor, and retiree. It begins with the mentor who spent his final two months personally handing off every client relationship he had built. Four decades later, Bening found himself in the same position.

Across six chapters, he writes about giving up authority, finding purpose after a career ends, mentoring the next generation, dealing with unfairness, adapting to social and technological change, and learning to let others take over.

For anyone who has spent decades building a career, company, or reputation, The Back Nine is a candid account of what happens when the title goes away but the experience remains.

P. Scott Bening is an entrepreneur, retired CEO, and author whose career spans more than four decades at the crossroads of science and business. After thirty-three years leading the company that made Tide Pods a reality, Scott now serves as an executive advisor, board member, and mentor to emerging leaders. With degrees from St. Lawrence University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, his honors include sixteen U.S. patents, induction into the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, a fellowship in Indiana's Society of Innovators, and a commendation from the 111th United States Congress. His first book, Formulating Solutions, became an Amazon bestseller.