Borrowed Time: What Home Care Taught Me About Living

What business are you actually in?

Becky Reel spent years getting it wrong.

After her grandfather endured a dehumanizing nursing home experience, and her parents nearly ruined themselves running a home care agency, Becky swore off the industry. Yet she ultimately took over their struggling business, driven by an inability to abandon a problem.

She believed she was in the home care business-licensed, employing caregivers, and serving clients. But she was competing on the wrong metrics: pricing, services, and credentials, barely surviving. She cried in parking lots, didnt pay herself, and lied to friends about her "amazing" venture. She wondered if caring too much was just another form of failure.

Then came the realization: She wasnt in home care; she was in hospitality. This single shift changed everything.

Borrowed Time: What Home Care Taught Me About Living isnt just about the time we borrow with our aging loved ones-its about the time we borrow from ourselves, pouring everything into a business that either breaks us or transforms us. Its a memoir, a business guide, and an honest account of building a business on your own terms.

This book is for those told they care too much, who cant separate their business from the people it serves, and who are tired of apologizing for their passion.

Your so-called weakness is your strength. The caring too much, the inability to let things go, the refusal to treat people like numbers-thats not something to overcome. Thats the whole business.