Milton Friedman's idea of shareholder supremacy asserts that the function of a business is to simply maximize its profits. This idea lends itself to a certain language.

Charts, graphs, and numbers become our primary communication methods, while emotions, sense of purpose, and connection are left in the dust.

Friedman’s ideas sound much more scandalous when translated into a personal setting: 

“The function of any relationship is to maximize the gain from it.”

While this idea makes our skin crawl, we accept it in business because business isn’t personal.

But business is personal. No matter what language we use to muddy the waters and remove responsibility from ourselves within our organizations, every interaction at its core, is with an individual.

“Is starting a business hard?”

Starting a business is much like beginning a new friendship. It’s front-loaded with fun and excitement. Everything is electric — the vision of perfection in your mind is unbendable.

The test of any organization comes with time. Making the right decisions when things are going poorly. Resisting the temptation to compromise your beliefs and take the easy way out at the expense of everyone else.

Such is any long term friendship. When the glitz, glam, and excitement have passed we’re left with something far more special although we don’t often realize it.

Truth. Substance. Safety.

A bond of trust that has the potential to weather any storm if we can play our part not only when times are good, but when things suck.

So no, starting a business isn’t hard, it’s really easy. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Six people. Six laptops. Six phones.

Someone talking, everyone else checking email, fielding text messages, looking forward to the next item on the agenda, waiting for their turn to speak. Doing everything but listening. 

It’s no wonder that as a growing organization communication is one of our biggest challenges. 

A server texting while taking our order. Our barber checking their email while cutting our hair.

Things we immediately recognize as unacceptable. We expect undivided attention from these people but don’t offer the same to our businesses, friends, or loved ones.

I'm as guilty as the next person and it's time for a shift. Who wants to join me?

“Always just being so selfish,” my brother said. Our grandmother had just passed and he was lamenting not going to see her more often. 

I was even more guilty. When I didn’t visit it was because it was hard. Hard for me to see someone who was so strong and vibrant, someone who used to churn out a seemingly endless supply of homemade tortillas and tamales, and cook huge dinners for the whole family, barely be able to move. 

It made me uncomfortable. Mostly because I know that will be me one day. It will be all of us one day. 

Earlier that same day I’d heard the Anne Frank quote: “Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.”

The ultimate flower is our time. Extremely limited in supply but available for use however we see fit. 

Driving home from Christmas dinner at my mothers I could see my grandma’s house from the freeway. I’d visited her recently and it was getting late so I told my wife: “I’ll just see her next time.” She died two days after Christmas. 

Sometimes next time never comes. 

In a planning session to identify focus areas for the coming year, we started with a huge list. Every idea on the list was a good one. We could do any of them and they would all improve our organization in some capacity. Figuring out which ones we should do was the trickier part of the conversation.

We had a good amount of:

• If we don’t do this someone else will

• we could do this better than someone else

• this will lead to more sales or brand exposure

There was a clear absence of a North Star. No vision of the world we wanted to create. 

In our personal lives and relationships, if we don’t have a clear idea of the kind of person we want to be, it’s easy and often tempting to go down paths that don’t serve our highest self — to fall into the trap of doing something simply because it’s convenient, trendy, or will pacify us in the short term. 

Business or personal, in a world with so much possibility, opportunity costs are higher than ever. Doing is relatively easy. Doing the right things is hard.

There's no switch to be flipped. No big changes to be made. Only consistency. 

One foot in front of the other. We're all going somewhere - sometimes with intentionality, sometimes blown by the whims of other people or a misplaced sense of obligation. 

The forced reflection isn't bad. But reflection doesn't serve us well if it only comes once every 365 days. The other 364 deserve attention as well.

If we reserve this deep reflection for once in a blue moon it shouldn't be surprising to look back after many years to find we've been cultivating a life that feels a bit off. 

Every day matters. Happy New Year.