It’s The “So What” of What We Do That Matters….

At our hearts, as humans, we are meaning-makers.  Why or for what reasons - deeply personal ones - we do what we do is what counts.  And it's no different when it comes to being a business owner, building our profitable and successful business vehicle and having it serve life on our terms.

I had a startup client turnover their first million a month - but this was eclipsed by the fact that she and her husband are having their first child. The hard work building the business to where it is today is not lost on her in today's climate, but that it will allow her - as it did her fellow business-owing sisters - to enjoy a paid-for maternity break and a role she loves to come back to is what has mattered most.

I had another client who restarted with me from scratch after a bad partnership breakup, break the million dollar annual profit threshold - no mean feat for a South African-based company - for the first time this year tough though it has been. But what looms most large in his life, is not this, but rather it's getting his personal life back on track in the wake of the death of his father.

A third client - who also restarted with me almost from ground zero - has replaced systems and team, personally stretched and held the business to a three million a month turnover target by taking on the first of the sorts of clients they SHOULD be aiming for but were previously intimidated by. And yet, the biggest win has been the freedom to make changes that prioritise health, mental wellness and personal happiness.

And I turned over my targeted profit, each month, each year, for 15 years in a row and held my place in the Top 50 coaches globally for 10 years which is an achievement to be proud of. But that both enabled me to launch my daughter in life, successfully self-publish one and almost two books, relocate internationally and meet a wonderful man to whom I'm now happily married are the REAL wins in my eyes.

So yes, the money and the business success in and of itself are things, BUT what they enable are THE things. Building our business vehicles right so that they are profitable and sufficiently leveraged to gift us a life while we work in them and enable us to exit them on our terms when the time comes, gives us wherewithall, choice, options and a future. They gift us the life we want. They enable us to dignify others with work, use suppliers who need our patronage, service our customers who'd be the poorer without us, and make a difference to the economy. They empower us to provide for our families and help our communities. They free us up to look after the environment and lobby for those without a voice. And it's these that matter.

Don't forget this when you're tempted to quit after a tough year. We're entrepreneurs. What we do matters. Those who we love need us. Our world needs us.