Development
Who you are as a person will either grow your company or hold it back. So what does it look like to keep growing as a person, not just as a business owner?
Why I Stopped Keeping My Life in Separate Boxes
In my twenties, I saw my life as a set of boxes. Relationships in one. Work in another. Health in another. A box for what I was learning, a box for exercise. I never sat down and decided this on purpose. It was just how I moved through the world.
My goals reflected that same thinking. When I set out to run a half marathon, I trained, I hydrated, I ate better, all pointed at the race. It never occurred to me that showing up for that goal might shape how I showed up in my relationships or my business. I kept everything separate because that's the only way I knew how to organize a life. I'm not even sure I was conscious that this was happening.
I don't see it that way anymore. Who I am in one part of my life shows up in every other part. Being present as a father affects how I sleep. Taking care of my body affects how I read and how I show up for the people who matter to me. Even my vacations have changed, because I don't want to spend them sitting around and eating or drinking a nice bottle of wine (although that is definitely a part of my vacations) I want to be active. Present.
This matters for you as an entrepreneur, probably more than you'd expect. The rest of my life doesn't stay in its lane. It shows up in my creative work, in how I solve problems, in how I think through marketing or hiring or the next leather good idea. None of that happens in a vacuum.
If you want to build something that lasts, you have to ask a bigger question than what's my next business move. You have to ask who you are, and what you're doing to grow as a person. Back in January, I started writing out my goals for the year and reading them five or six times a week, adding to them, cutting what no longer fit. What surprised me was how much that habit bled into everything, not just my business plans, but how I show up in every room I walk into.
At this point, I don't think you can separate the two (personal and professional). How I treat people in my personal life is how I treat people at work. Same instincts, same care, same attention. Both matter to me deeply, and honestly, they've become impossible to pull apart.
So here's what I want you to sit with: your company will only grow as much as you do. Your own personal growth isn't a side project. It's the actual engine behind your business.
