They accept reality faster than everyone else. A few years ago, I sat down with a business owner who was convinced he knew exactly why his business wasn’t where he wanted it to be. The economy was difficult. Customers were Read more
How to get better answers About two years ago, a contact introduced me to Rico Swan over a coffee. He’d actually come to talk about something completely different. But as the conversation developed, I started asking him questions about the Read more
Why so many businesses leave change too late — and why the cost is always higher than they expected Most business owners I speak to don’t believe anything’s fundamentally wrong. The pressure, the cashflow stress, the long hours, the feeling Read more
Why good businesses balance belief with managed risk Most business owners are naturally optimistic. They have to be. Very few people would start a business if they looked at the statistics objectively and relied purely on logic. Optimism is often Read more
Why most people quietly avoid the truth about where they are — and what it would take to improve it One of the most interesting things about human beings is how good we are at protecting ourselves from uncomfortable truths. Read more
Why so many business owners underperform — not through lack of ability, but through lack of clarity and discipline One of the most common things I see in business owners is not a lack of capability. It’s a gap. A Read more
You can’t change what you won’t acknowledge One of my guiding principles is something I’ve taken from Ray Dalio’s book “Principles” and its really very simple, but not at all easy: Accept reality and deal with it. It sounds obvious. Read more
The language you use doesn’t just describe your business — it defines how it is understood This week I found myself having the same conversation several times, and it had nothing to do with strategy, marketing plans or financial performance. Read more
And What You Achieve Most business owners spend a large proportion of their time surrounded by people they lead. Employees. Customers. Suppliers. All important, but all looking to the owner for direction. Which means something is often missing. Challenge. Not Read more
But Your Business Doesn’t Need to Be The human mind has a built-in bias towards negativity. From an evolutionary perspective, that made perfect sense. For most of human history, survival depended on spotting threats quickly. The person who noticed what Read more