SPEAKING KEY NOTES

I believe there are things more important than the success of your business.

And if you're not willing to lose money to protect those things, you may have built a successful company...

But you haven't built a company worth leading.

Now, that's a strange thing to hear from a guy who makes a living helping businesses become more profitable.

I teach business owners how to price their services, grow their companies, and build organizations that succeed financially.

But I've come to believe something that challenges almost everything we're taught about business.

Just because a decision makes good business sense doesn't mean it's the right decision.

Sometimes doing what's right means giving money back.

Sometimes it means apologizing when nobody knows you've done anything wrong.

Sometimes it means showing generosity to someone who's treated you like garbage.

And sometimes it means going home, looking your family in the eyes, and realizing the leadership you've been preaching all day hasn't made it through your own front door.

Its not just how to build a better business.

But how to become the kind of leader who's worthy of the business they've been entrusted with.

That's Burning Coals.

I still remember the beads of sweat as they poured from my eye brow.

As the intensity of the accusations against my employee began to spill.

The text messages that should have never been sent.

The reality that our core values were in direct opposition to it...

After all he was married.

And I knew that it made no sense business wise.

Letting him go meant we would lose 20% production and take a massive hit

But what is money in comparison to me betraying his wife's trust

And his daughter...

I tried to spin it around in my mind for days. 

But I kept coming back to the same answer.

Am I, Are you, willing to hold your core values to the fire

Knowing it will cost you.

The world doesn't need more successful entrepreneurs. It needs more leaders worth following.