Rene Robaina, VITAL Master Guide, challenges the traditional mindset of business ownership, exploring how treating your company as a temporary responsibility leads to better growth, stronger foundations, and a lasting legacy.
I’m writing this at thirty seven thousand feet on a flight to Phoenix, somewhere between where I was and where I’m going, and this thought wouldn’t leave me alone.
Most CEOs believe they own their business. And honestly, it makes sense. You built it. You carried it through the hard years. You made the calls no one else wanted to make. You probably sacrificed more than anyone will ever fully understand.
So of course it feels like yours. But what if that’s not actually true?
What if you’re not the owner… just the one responsible for it right now?
That shift sounds small, almost like semantics, but it changes more than you think. Because when you believe you own something, your decisions tend to revolve around protecting it. Protecting your time, your money, your position, what you’ve already built.
When you start to see it as something you’ve been trusted with, even temporarily, the questions change. You start asking what this business needs next. What your people need to grow. What you’re supposed to do with it while you have it.
I see it all the time in the CI space. A company hits a certain size and without anyone saying it out loud, the goal quietly becomes maintenance. Keep things steady. Don’t break anything. Just hold it together.
But nothing in your business is designed to sit still. Your team is either growing or getting frustrated. Your clients are either getting more loyal or slowly drifting. Your systems are either improving or starting to crack.
The leaders who break through that phase don’t focus on holding ground. They start thinking about what this business could actually become if they leaned into it. And they act differently because of it.
If any of that feels a little too familiar, it might be time to rethink how you’re leading right now.
Read the full Tuesday Coffee here.
Stay VITAL,
Rene & the team
