Why Business Owners Get Demotivated

My job is to help CEOs and leadership teams scale their companies. And one of the most interesting challenges that I see is when a CEO loses passion for the business that they owned and that they potentially started. Sometimes they don't start those businesses, sometimes they acquire them, buy them for a bunch of different reasons. But one day they find out that the problem the business solves is not deeply connected to their own personal why.

And they don't know this at the time. This is something I've discovered over the years dealing with CEOs who come up with the same challenge, which is, I don't love the business that I'm in. And again, a lot of things can cause this. Sometimes, in a lot of cases, the decisions we make that put us in a bad spot temporarily, the team that we've hired up to that point, we feel like we have to jump in and save the day.

There are things that can create temporary issues with motivation, but when it becomes a systemic, long-term challenge with an entrepreneurial CEO, a business owner, you know that it is usually tied into this disconnect between the deep meaning that they have, the why, why do they exist, and then the problem that they solve for the consumer. So this why, this core purpose, we tend to have, our business tends to have a core purpose beyond just making profit. And yes, it can be problematic if it doesn't. If we think that it's there just to exist and make money, we tend to not be as passionate as CEOs about the business and the problem that it solves for the customer.

So we have to be very clear on what our own why is. And there are ways to get to that. Simon Sinek, what, How, why? You can use that exercise to define the why for your business, which tends to be, if you're an entrepreneurial CEO, that tends to be your why as well.

You can also use an exercise called the five whys, where you start with what does this business do? Write that out in very simple terms and then back into why does that matter? And then say after you write that answer down, why is that important? And after you write that answer down, why does that matter?

Why is that important? Keep going until you get through about five whys and you'll inevitably land at something really interesting that sounds like saving the world. And usually you have to back up one step and that's your core purpose. And a great core purpose, a great why starts with to verb.

So for instance, my core purpose It has been for years, I've confirmed this in a number of different ways, it is to unlock fulfilling growth. And it's almost what I would do if I was paid nothing to do it. That deep why that I have, which is I care very deeply about helping everyone at work, the CEO, leadership team, every employee, have the same great day at work that I did back when I first learned the habits and the disciplines that I did to run businesses back in the early 2000s. I want them to feel that same meaning and purpose that I did.

So that great why is what drives us as CEOs and as owners. And when our why doesn't doesn't jive and doesn't connect deeply with the problem that you solve as a business for a customer, that's when you're going to run into a situation where you can get a demotivated owner. And yes, like I said, there are a lot of other things that can cause short-term demotivation, but that long-term demotivation, not passionate about the business, that comes from that disconnect. And owners will try to excuse it as something else.

I've got a mindset issue. And, you know, a lot of people talk about mindset, and mindset is important, but, you know, mindset without systems and mindset without a why is nothing. You've got to get into sort of that deep what is your own why? So when we don't find that, when we can't find that connection, what we have to do is make other plans.

We have to say, hey, if I don't have this why, what do I do next as an owner? One, sometimes I have to get a GM to run the business for me. Number two, sometimes I have to sell the business. And I've had CEOs where we've done this on a few different occasions, and it's been awesome.

They get into a business that's deeply connected to their why. Suddenly the world is right again, and we can drive that business. They are so passionate and so excited about the business they own. They find new ways to improve it on a day-to-day basis.

It just becomes an incredibly driving force. So make sure that if you're the owner of a small business and a medium-sized business, SMB, mid-market, and you feel that disconnect, make sure you take a close look at your core purpose and the problem you solve for the customer. And that knowledge of that problem, by the way, might be as difficult to derive as the core purpose itself. If you've really sat back and asked yourself, why or what is the singular problem we solve for the customer?

That is a critical, critical thing to answer. Make sure you have a business that's tied to both.