The purpose of the study reported in this chapter was to determine if senior evaluation consultants experienced stages of growth in their practice similar to the small business development stages described by Bruce and Scott, to identify the stimuli that led to those changes, to determine what the consultants learned from these incidents, and to suggest the training that evaluation organizations such as the American Evaluation Association (AEA) could provide to support consultants at different stages. To gain a long enough perspective on life cycle stages, a purposive sample of six senior, nonuniversity-based evaluation consultants was selected. Names of individuals who were likely to meet these criteria were selected from conference programs of the AEA and the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) between 1985 and 1990. Interviews were conducted either in person or by telephone, and each lasted sixty to ninety minutes. The data were transcribed, mapped for themes, coded, and analyzed. The results were compared to the life cycle stages proposed by Bruce and Scott, and critical incidents were categorized. Other themes that emerged were also explored. While the five life cycle stages defined the research, an additional category, the preinception stage, was added to describe participants' skills, early roles, and predilections that may have led them to, or prepared them for, a career in independent consulting. (Contains 2 tables.)