The Power of Dreams and Motivation in Business and Life
When business gets hard, motivation isn’t enough. This is about using your dream as a North Star—and why it still matters even when you already have enough.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Leading When You Don’t Have the Answers
I’ve always felt like my job as a leader is to keep things steady.
Be positive.
Keep the energy up.
Have a plan.
Even when things aren’t perfect, you walk into the room like they are going to be.
That’s the job.
But the last couple of months haven’t felt like that at all.
January and February have been slow in a way that doesn’t make a lot of sense. It honestly reminds me of 2020 when orders just stopped coming in. We’ve had to put money back into the business to keep things moving. Last week we made a mistake on an order and refunded $1,700.
It adds up.
And it starts to get in your head.
So in our sales meeting this week, I didn’t do the usual version of myself.
I told the truth.
I told the team things need to improve quickly. That I believe in them, but I need them to be hungry right now. That we have to figure this out.
And then I said something I normally wouldn’t say.
I told them if they could find a better leader right now, I’d probably recommend it.
I meant it in a half-joking way. But there was something real underneath it.
Because if I’m being honest, I don’t feel like I have the answers right now.
I don’t have a perfect plan.
I don’t know exactly why things have slowed down like this.
When things feel uncertain like this, I’ve learned the only way forward is to focus on what we can actually control. That’s why I lean on a simple system—when sales slow, build a scoreboard—to keep us grounded in action instead of emotion.
What I do have is a gut feeling about what we should be doing next. And a belief that if we keep showing up and doing the right things, we’ll work our way through it.
But that gap between where you are and where you think you should be as a leader… that’s real.
I think a lot of people assume leadership feels like certainty.
Like you reach a point where you just know what to do.
That hasn’t been my experience.
A lot of the time, it feels like standing in the middle of it, with people looking to you for direction, and you’re doing your best to read the situation and make the next right call.
No script. No guarantee.
Just responsibility.
And the willingness to keep moving.
That’s the part I didn’t understand earlier on.
Leadership isn’t about always having the answer.
It’s about being honest enough to admit when you don’t, and still being willing to lead anyway.
To say:
This matters.
We’re not where we need to be.
But we’re going to figure it out.
And to ask your team for help when you need it.
I’ve written before about how much relationships matter in life in What Makes a Friend, and it turns out the same thing applies in business.
You can’t do this alone.
Not in a dramatic way.
Not in a desperate way.
Just honestly.
I need you right now.
That was different for me.
I don’t usually show up like that.
But I think the team felt it.
Because at some point, this stops being my business and starts being our problem to solve together.
And maybe that’s the shift.
Not pretending everything is fine.
But trusting that the people around you can handle the truth—and rise to meet it.
“Know what’s enough. Build what matters.”
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