By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage

Part 3 of the Are You Building the Business at the Expense of Yourself? Series

One of the great advantages of experience is that you’ve seen a lot.

One of the dangers of experience is that you’ve seen a lot.

After running a business for twenty or thirty years, you’ve probably dealt with difficult employees, lost customers, cash flow problems, recessions, competitors, hiring challenges, technology changes, and more than a few surprises.

Eventually, you get pretty good at recognizing patterns.

That’s incredibly valuable.

But experience can also make us comfortable. We develop routines. We know what works. We surround ourselves with people who know how we operate.

Without realizing it, experience can become autopilot.

As leaders get older and more experienced, we need to become more intentional about exercising our brains, not less.

Your Brain Needs Resistance Too

We understand this concept physically.

If you want to maintain muscle, you have to use it. If you want to improve cardiovascular fitness, you have to challenge your heart and lungs.

Our brains aren’t that different.

The concept of neuroplasticity reminds us that our brains continue to adapt based on what we experience, learn, and practice. We don’t need to become neuroscientists to understand the practical implication.

Keep learning. Keep challenging yourself. Keep doing things that make your brain work differently.

Read something outside your normal field. Learn a language. Pick up an instrument. Travel somewhere unfamiliar. Take up a new hobby. Learn a technology you don’t understand.

And occasionally do something you’re terrible at.

There’s something healthy about being a beginner again.

Get Outside Your Own Four Walls

One of the things I love about leading CEO peer advisory groups is watching what happens when successful owners get around other successful owners.

They challenge each other.

Someone running a manufacturing company hears how a technology CEO solved a people problem. A construction company owner learns something about recurring revenue from someone in professional services. One CEO asks another a question their employees might never feel comfortable asking.

That’s mental exercise.

The higher you climb in an organization, the easier it becomes to become intellectually isolated.

People bring you answers instead of questions. Employees learn how you think. Your industry reinforces many of the same assumptions you’ve held for years.

You need people and experiences that occasionally make you say:

I hadn’t thought about it that way.

That’s one reason I believe every CEO needs some environment where their thinking is challenged rather than simply affirmed.

Your Business Cannot Be Your Only Hobby

There’s another side of keeping your brain healthy that has less to do with becoming a better CEO.

You need interests outside the business.

I’ve worked with owners who genuinely love the game of business. I understand it because I do too.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that.

The problem comes when the business becomes the only game you know how to play.

Your work provides your challenge, identity, accomplishments, relationships, goals, and sense of purpose. Then one day you’re supposed to sell it and walk away.

That’s where an otherwise successful exit can become surprisingly difficult.

An owner may be financially ready to leave.

The company may be operationally ready for them to leave.

But the owner isn’t mentally or emotionally ready to leave.

That’s why one of the most important questions in exit planning isn’t simply, What are you retiring from?

It’s:

What are you retiring to?

Start Building That Life Now

You shouldn’t wait until six months before selling your company to discover what else interests you.

Develop hobbies now.

Set personal goals that have nothing to do with revenue or EBITDA. Learn something because you’re curious about it, not because it will improve your business. Travel. Read. Teach. Volunteer. Build something. Coach something. Try something new.

The specific activity matters less than continuing to challenge yourself and developing an identity that isn’t entirely dependent on your title.

Ironically, I think that can make you a better business leader too.

Curiosity creates perspective.

New experiences create new connections.

And learning to be a beginner again is a pretty good antidote to believing that twenty years of experience means we already have all the answers.

Final Thought

Experience should make us wiser.

It shouldn’t make us comfortable.

The goal isn’t to constantly chase the newest idea or reinvent yourself every six months. It’s to remain curious enough to question what you know and interested enough in life that your business doesn’t become your entire identity.

Exercise your brain. Find people who challenge you. Develop interests outside the office. Keep learning things that have absolutely nothing to do with making money.

Because someday, whether through a planned transition or something you didn’t plan, the game of business will change.

Build a mind, and a life, that has more than one game worth playing.

Next in the series: Buddies, Every CEO Needs People Who Don’t Need Them to Be the CEO.

About the Author

Trent Lee is a Vistage Chair, leading CEO peer groups, and helps business owners escape founder dependency and scale sustainable companies using the Value Builder System and strategic execution coaching.

Want to learn more about building a business that can execute, scale, and create long term value?

Visit www.compassleadershipadvisors.com

or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentrlee/