Jeremy Burkhardt, industry character and one of the industry's most influential leaders, announces his retirement from Speakercraft. Keith Marshall, president of Proficient Audio (and sister company to Speakercraft) will step in.

No doubt the full story will come out, but why is 40-year old Burkhardt retiring?

Watch him in his announcement video (link below) and hear him repeat the word "retirement." And then he explains,"I'll probably go sit under a tree and do something else."

And that's exactly the point.

"Do something else." This doesn't sound like a man about to retire. It sounds more like a man who has decided to leave for whatever reason and has agreed with a corporation on the best way to walk away "in the best interest of the corporation."

Nortek is the corporation that owns Speakercraft, and an impressive list of companies with important residential brands. Nortek bought Speakercraft in 2004 for $58 million and Burkhardt made a lot of money, money affectionately known by most entrepreneurs as “FU money.” Money that enables an entrepreneur to walk away from large companies at the appropriate time.

When is the time appropriate? Normally, when you get fed up of big company constraints...or new management steps in and you disagree with new philosophy or have conflict with new personalities...or you feel under-appreciated...... or maybe when you lose your Nirv.