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This article is part of the America's Favorite Mom & Pop Shops series. Read more stories
Key Takeaways Long-term life planning creates aligned business decisions that reduce burnout.
Designing your life first prevents your business from dictating your well-being.
It is a cruel irony I see constantly among the entrepreneurs who pass through Growth Institute: we design five-year financial projections with decimal-point precision and polish our corporate mission until it shines. Yet, if I asked you today what you want your average Tuesday to look like in ten years, you would likely draw a blank.
There is a hard belief that business success demands the sacrifice of personal well-being. But after years of scaling companies, I have confirmed the opposite: you are the primary bottleneck of your company. If your psychology and quality of life collapse, your organization’s growth stops.
This isn’t theory; it is something I lived.
When the business “eats” the person
To understand why I insist on Life Design, I have to take you back to my time in Texas.
I was running a mortgage company that was growing like crazy. Revenue was skyrocketing, and opportunities seemed infinite. From the outside, I had “made it.” I was living the American Dream on paper, but living a nightmare in reality. Behind closed doors, it was unsustainable.
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