What Are We Building—and Who Is It For?
People and family first.
That is where I want to begin when I think about success. I care about doing good work. I enjoy new ideas, and I want to keep learning. But I also want to remember who all that effort is for.
It is easy to ask what comes next for a business. A new location? More revenue? Another opportunity?
I want to ask what comes next for the people, too.
When “more” needs a little explanation
In “Beyond the Numbers,” I wrote about an imagined startup celebrating its first profitable year. The owners wanted to keep more and grow more.
I understand that ambition. Building something takes effort, and a first profit gives people a reason to feel hopeful.
But I want to stay with those owners a little longer, before the conversation moves straight into expansion.
What do they hope growth will change in their lives?
Perhaps they want more breathing room at home. Perhaps they want to hire someone they can trust, so taking a day off does not mean worrying about the business all day. Perhaps they want to create something their family can be proud of, whether or not anyone in the family chooses to work there.
Those are possibilities, not answers I should assume.
“I want to grow” can mean many things. I want to understand what it means to the person saying it.
What do we want to protect?
Imagine that expansion starts to look possible. A space becomes available. There is excitement about what the business could become.
Alongside the questions about money and timing, I would want to leave room for some ordinary ones.
Who will take on the extra work? What will the next six months look like at home? Have the people affected had a chance to talk about it?
These questions do not mean the opportunity is wrong. They help us see more of what saying yes would involve.
Sometimes a family may decide that a demanding season is worth it. Sometimes the timing may not be right. There is no single version of a good life that I can hand to someone else.
For me, people and family first means their needs belong in the conversation from the beginning—not only after the business decisions have been made.
Ambition has a place
I don’t think caring about family means giving up ambition.
Work can be a source of pride, purpose, and possibility. Wanting to build a strong business is a good thing. So is wanting to provide for the people you love.
The difficult part is noticing when the way we are working no longer fits the reason we started.
If the hope was more freedom, are we making room for it? If the hope was greater security, do the people at home feel more secure? If we keep saying things will settle down later, have we talked about what “later” actually means?
I don’t ask those questions because I have everything figured out. They are questions worth returning to as life changes.
Making room to listen
This is the human side of work that matters to me.
Before offering an answer, I want to understand what someone hopes for and what they are worried about. I want to leave enough room for them to say, “The business is doing well, but something still needs to change.”
That is an important part of the picture, even if it does not appear in the numbers.
A growing business may be part of a good life. It should not become the only part we know how to discuss.
So yes, let’s talk about what we are building. Let’s think ahead and take the work seriously.
And as we do, I want to keep asking:
Are we building a life that leaves room for the people we’re doing this for?