What Are You Really Building?

Every business owner starts with the intention of building a successful business. The more important question is whether you're also building the life you hoped that business would create.

One of the privileges of working alongside business owners is that, every now and then, a conversation takes an unexpected turn.

Recently I was meeting with the owner of a successful business that has ambitious plans for the future. We were discussing growth, leadership and what the business might look like over the next five years.

As part of that discussion I asked a simple question.

"If this business doubles in size, what does your role need to become?"

The conversation paused.

Then he admitted something that surprised even him.

"I feel guilty when I'm not working."

As we explored that feeling, the discussion moved away from strategy and into something much more personal.

He spoke about his father, who had built a remarkable business through decades of hard work before eventually selling it.

Financially, it had been a great success.

Personally, it had left a different challenge.

Without the business, there was very little left to replace the sense of purpose it had provided.

My client quietly acknowledged that he could see himself heading down exactly the same path.

Even family holidays weren't really holidays.

He was there physically.

His mind rarely left the business.

That conversation reminded me of another business owner I first met several years ago.

At the time, he genuinely believed he couldn't leave the business for a single day without everything falling apart.

Today, he's travelling through Europe for three months while the business is on track to achieve its best month since he purchased it.

The difference wasn't luck.

It wasn't a stronger economy.

It wasn't better people.

Over time he had built a business that no longer depended on him being there every day.

The business had grown.

So had he.

Those two conversations have stayed with me because they reinforce something I've come to believe over many years.

The purpose of building a successful business isn't simply to create profit.

It's to create choices.

Choices about how you spend your time.

Choices about your family.

Choices about your health.

Choices about what gives your life purpose beyond work.

Business ownership will always demand commitment.

But commitment and dependency aren't the same thing.

Perhaps one of the real measures of success isn't how much your business needs you.

Perhaps it's whether the business you've built gives you the freedom to live the life you set out to create in the first place.

Steve Wilkinson

Commercial Common Sense.