Your business is not about You

There is a prevailing notion amongst business owners that their business is about them. And while they are indeed the agents that act through their businesses, nothing could be farther from the truth. A lot of people fight me about this, but I ask you kindly to hear me out, for this might make a lot of sense to you as well.

The waters are divided when it comes to our egos: We want to matter, we crave for recognition of our actions. We want to be remembered and we want to be held in high honors. All this however is not a natural human trait, it is something that we picked up along the way, ever since we were told that we could be better than someone else, or that we have to do better or that we are not enough. Envy is a business owner’s biggest enemy, because it taints the purity of their actions and the reason why they are doing it. When our desire to matter becomes the driver of why we are doing it, we invite dishonesty into our organizations and we poison not only those who work alongside us but also those we work for. 

Here is what I propose instead and which has brought me a lot of relief and joy and last but not least, success that lasts: As owners of our business we are just the vessels of the value we bring into this world. Once we understand that we have been gifted with a unique belief and the tools to turn it into business-magic, we see that the impact we can bring is much bigger than the person we are. The impact will survive us long after we have become dust. Steve Jobs is remembered, but his legacy will touch people in the far future. Because he was clear and focused enough to work hard at making his purpose immortal. And this is where our true work lies. If we give all the attention to the petty personal desires we want to fulfill through our work, we limit its scope of change to the mortal person that we are. But as it has been portrayed so many times in literature, the art the artist creates supersedes the artists itself thousandfold. Because the artist is ‘just’ the channel through which this change is brought into the world. 

Please consider this for a moment in your own life. How are you a spokesperson for the change that will survive you? And how are you embracing that eternal value in your work and in your thoughts? 

This reflects in the way we see success: If we work for a Lamborghini, we diminish our impact to the futile. And just like the Lamborghini it loses value by the day. If we work to fuel the change further, we increase our impact beyond ourselves. This is why agents of change, entrepreneurs of value invest in their impact, to deepen and widen it. 

This attitude of “serving our cause more than ourselves” is reflected in the way we deal with our clients: We are not here for them to tap us on the back. We are here to be merely visible. We are here to uplift them, so they remember us, but really feel like it was them who did the right thing, made the right choice. Brands that impose themselves on their clientele asking for referrals and testimonials, are afraid of losing their relevance. What they forget is that their relevance lives in the value they are bringing to their people. It lives within them, invisibly and eternally.