Reflections and intention

5d • ManOS

I've had an interesting few weeks. For almost 3 years I've been trying to rebuild my company. Between June and Aug of 2023, all 3 of my employees left. I dug deep. I rehired. I simplified. I sacrificed. 2025 was my best year since starting in 2007. It was also a difficult year with my wife's cancer and mental health scares with my teen daughter. Mid 2024 I hired Gary. I saw huge potential in someone that from the first interview said "I want your job". So we started the journey of training him to be my protege. 2025 was hard financially because I was growing and reinvesting and a lot of that investment was in him (time and money). He was a big help with the demands of family, treatments, etc. he was making less than he wanted, but saw the value in investing his time into learning and was gaining what he needed to eventually take over. I was making less because I was investing in him. His progress was slower, than I wanted, but his attitude and determination made up for it (or so I convinced myself). Hindsight, he was a diligent worker, but lacked the vision and confidence to grow a business. Over the last 3 months my wife has felt better and I've been able to dive back into the business and I have huge goals and ambitions for 2026. I could see Gary struggling to keep up with me at this new pace. The end goal of me stepping down or significantly back by the end of 2026 was firm in my mind. His too. However with some new hires and shifts in things I had to change our approach a few times. Rather than talk to me and express his concerns, he let things build up and started having a skewed perspective of my motives. Long story short, over the last 3 weeks he went from feeling frustrated and unappreciated to defiant, that culminated I him refusing to work, refusing to communicate with me and just making unrealistic demand and I had to fire him last week. So in a few weeks we went from things cranking along to another record year, to full nuclear implosion.

I'm grateful for the things I've experienced over the last year and people I've gotten to know. I'm at peace with the whole thing. It sucks and it's made things hard the last couple of weeks, but I was honest. My integrity intact. My intentions were never misaligned with our end goal. I look at how I would have handled things even 6 most ago and I would have been devastated, offended. But from the intention and things I shared here, I was able to separate the emotions from the accusations. I was able to see the truth if who I am and be confident in that.

I wanted to post an intention for my business and as a business owner here. I invite criticism. It has gone from an intention to almost a company charter. Almost like my business as its own entity, this is its intention.

**We are a company that stands, grows, and thrives without dependence on any one person.

The standard for success is defined outside the individual—visible, fixed, and executable without interpretation.

The standard changes only when it strengthens the whole.

People and the company thrive because of the standard, and the relationship remains symbiotic—not parasitic—by design.

Leadership exists to build and protect the standard, not to become it.**

I am looking at a lot of scenarios now and anchoring to this "compass". Gary was parasitic to the company. Taking more than contributing. I have a new employee that is a rising start and I need to make sure that the company isn't acting parasitically toward her. I, even as the owner, need to not be a parasite taking more profits than what the business needs to build and grow.

It's made me realize that while relationships within a company are very important, the relationship between the employee and the company is more important. For too long Gary was supporting me (I enjoyed being his mentor; he could put out fires I didn't have time for) so I kept nurturing our relationship rather than the relationship between him and the company. This only applied if you are trying to scale a company. Separate yourself from the company. If you are the company then it's different.

I made the connection with parenting: when kids are young, you do everything for them. But as they grow up you want them to be independent. If a parent doesn't prepare the child to act and make decisions without the parent, then that parent has failed the child and will be destined to have to forever 'parent'.

Thanks for sticking to the end. I'd love any thoughts on this. My intention is to now lead with this 'charter'. To discuss with employees and help them get to know this 'entity' that they work for and what they should expect. Then I need to audit my own actions and make sure the operations are in line with this new compass.

If you think I'm crazy, delusional, or whatever, please poke holes in my logic, please challenge me, please push if you feel inspired to do so.

23 comments