I think it's outstanding applied to employees. However I can understand applying it to owners selling a business.

A lifetime ago my uncle sold his TV repair business and it was subject to a non compete clause. He could not open another business within 100 miles. He later went to work for another shop one day a week. He stayed in a back room away from customers because he felt it wouldn't be fair if customers saw him. He was paid $20 per hour which was a fortune in 1965. They gave him all the TVs nobody else could figure out.

He once leaned up against an electric fence and pretended he didn't know it was electric just for laughs.