Richard Pierce Thomas

Leadership and Small Business Consultant

It was a déjà vu moment. The line of questioning the young businessman was asking could have been a verbatim list of the questions I had asked seven years ago, soon after the launch of my business.            

“Do you have a website? How do you market yourself? How do you find your clients? How do you price your services? What is your differentiation in the market? And on, and on, and on….

Being on the receiving end of the questions now, the problem was obvious and it explained the one conversation I had seven years ago that challenged me the most. It was with a retired business owner that I had come to know who had been very successful in his career. I was grilling him with the same line of questioning until at one point with his hand raised, he cut me off. “You’re asking the wrong questions.”

I was instantly baffled. What questions was I supposed to be asking? I was afraid to admit I didn’t know.

“You are focusing on the wrong things. Most of what you are asking is stuff that comes later. What I want to know is, why you haven’t asked me why I chose to be a business owner? Or, what keeps me going when everything I try fails? Or what is my definition of success?”

“Here is the reality in running a business,” he continued. “It matters much less what you do. It matters way more, however, in who you are in what you do.”

“I’m not sure I get it,” I had to admit.

“Look at it this way. You can spend all kinds of time doing the right things and ultimately be unfulfilled by the results. This becomes a treadmill because the only thing you know is to do more of the same.”

“Sounds like the definition of insanity,” I interjected.

“Exactly. This comes from a lack of alignment with what is important to you, and why you are doing what you are doing. Get this right, and you will achieve the ultimate definition of success, which is fulfillment. Fulfillment is priceless. I could have done a lot of things in my career that would have earned me a lot more money. But they wouldn’t have been fulfilling. I wouldn’t trade the fulfillment I’ve gained for all the tea in China.”

Fast forward seven years, I reflected on the principles resulting from that conversation. The budding entrepreneur across from me waited expectantly. 

“First, you’ve got to love what you do. Not because of the money or notoriety, but because your business allows you to do something you were made for. For me, it has always been about helping people improve. I love to see leaders succeed and the best way I found to do this all the time was to have my own coaching and consulting business. But I didn’t do it because I thought it would make me a cajillionaire. Not that I wouldn’t mind, but that has never been my main goal. 

“Second, at the end of the day, it’s all about people. Certainly your clients, but as much, it’s about the people who support you and help you become successful. If you don’t take care of them, you won’t have a business for very long.

“Third, you need to be willing to take action. It’s just a matter of time before you are in a situation where you don’t know what to do. You need to decide. Yes, get advice but be willing to pull the trigger, sooner than later, which brings me to the fourth point.

“Own the result. This is the loneliest part of being a business owner. Sometimes you will make decisions that no one wants to be a part of. Own the fact that you, and you alone will need to make decisions that are either very unpopular or are full of uncertainty. Don’t avoid it. It comes with the turf and the sooner you make your peace with this, the better.”

He quietly sipped on his coffee as he thought about what I’d said. “Ask the right questions,” I assured, “and the answers will come in time. They did for me.”  

Rick P. Thomas is President of Activate Leadership, a leadership development consultancy in Washington state. He consults and speaks to organizations across the country, focusing on individual and organizational achievement.