thank you to over 11,000 of you who read this weekly and share with your friends and family for behind the scenes on building a million dollar business from scratch and beyond.
i also include a personal note in the end so i am grateful that you let me do that without judgement.
in Q1 early in the year we had almost 3 months of zero sales that required us to make a dramatic change in the people and process. since then we have back to back record quarter growth.
as that got fixed, we had a big change on the team as we added a new person and need to find lanes of genius as opposed to overlapping responsibilities.
as we addressed that we introduced a new product for faster sales cycle to create more velocity leading to us to know solve another challenge of customer support.
the reality is that, there is almost always something to fix and the lesson i am learning is that it is ok.
i used to try to fix all the problems as quickly as possible but the reality is some problems need time.
it is ok to not have everything working well no matter how big or small your company is.
the most important thing seems to be to offer clarity for the next step to the team in the process to move forward.
a feeling that we are in this together.
a promise that we will make it though.
and ultimately, it’s ok, that everything is not 100% connecting because if it did, it be boring :)
the goal is alway to connect the dots but see what picture God has in store for you.
the author of proverbs puts it this way “the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”
this is why i have been very intentional of having mentors in my life that i learn and spend time with to share my challenges and hear theirs, pray for each other, and know that it’s ok to have issues in building a business or building anything for that matter.
the goal is to be in pursuit of connecting the dots.
on a personal note, my wife and i have been talking a lot about our parenting and learning about it.
sometimes it feels like an overwhelming responsibility to guide the path of our young kids as we all know most of our adult lives is a result of our childhood experiences.
one of the phrases we heard recently was that we need to move from “correcting to connecting.”
meaning, we need to connect with our kids instead of simply correcting their mistakes, especially as they get older.
correcting can be done with quick and easy decisive actions that are short term focused.
connecting takes effort, time, and intentionality for the long term.
here are a few examples of connecting in our family:
write Saturday cards (this has been going on for almost 4 years now that is almost 1-2 hour morning routine each Saturday and the kids enjoy it)
have dinners together (not on the side but all sit together)
neighborhood walks (yesterday i just went for a walk with my son and connected on some deep questions that we would not have if we haven’t been on a walk together)
and that’s a hard lesson because i want to get things done faster and not slower.
well in truth, relationships are built slower and not faster.
in business and in life, always connecting will build better relationships than always correcting.
Leader point - correcting is easy and connecting is worthy.
curious: how do you connecting with you spouse, kids, team or customers?