Nice words on a wall that no one has ever used to make a real decision. I was in a session on how companies actually build values that matter, and the test was blunt. Would you fire a top performer for violating this value? If the answer is no, it isn’t a core value. It’s a preference. One team wanted “fun” on their list. Good instinct, great culture. But you’re not going to fire your best salesperson for not being fun enough. So it fails the test. A real core value has teeth. It shapes who you hire, who you promote, and who you let go, even when it costs you. That’s the difference between a value and a poster. If you can’t point to a hard decision your values have driven, you don’t have values yet. You have decoration. This is core to how we build vision at

In my latest monthly video, I talk about a simple idea: Indecision is a decision. We tell ourselves we’re waiting. Waiting for the right moment. But waiting is a choice. And sometimes the most revealing version of that choice sounds like this: “We don’t have 90 minutes to spare.” I hear it occasionally when I invite an entrepreneur and their leadership team to a 90-Minute Meeting to explore whether EOS might help them run a better business. There’s no cost. There’s no commitment. There’s no contract hidden underneath the table waiting to leap out and attack you. Just 90 minutes. And yet: “We’re too busy.” “We can’t get everyone together.” “This quarter is crazy.” “Maybe when things settle down.”   You always have the time. Not literally, of course. There are only 24 hours in a day, despite what LinkedIn productivity gurus seem determined to make us believe. But we

Business owners tend to face the same five frustrations as their companies grow. Most business owners don’t start out frustrated. They start with a big vision, a lot of energy, and the belief that if they keep growing the company, they’ll eventually have more freedom and less stress. And for a while, that’s exactly how it feels. You win some business, build a team, and start seeing the company take shape. Then, somewhere along the way, things get harder. The team grows, the decisions get bigger, the issues get more complicated, and the owner slowly becomes the person everyone depends on to solve everything. Before long, the business they built for freedom starts running them instead. As EOS Implementers, we hear these same frustrations repeatedly from business owners who are ready to start running on the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). The good news is that EOS helps leadership teams strengthen the

How Queensland businesses can build the operational foundations to capture the economic opportunity from the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. By Mirko Roettgers, Professional EOS Implementer, Brisbane, SEQ, Queensland. This article summarises findings from the whitepaper “The Green and Gold Runway”, which draws on more than 30 government, industry and academic sources. The whitepaper is 45-minute in-depth read examining the direct and indirect Brisbane 2032 opportunities, the seven operational challenges most commonly limiting businesses’ access to them, and a systematic, industry-specific approach to addressing each one. It includes complete data sourcing, methodology notes, and a glossary of terms. INTRODUCTION The 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games are widely described by economic analysts as one of the more significant catalysts for South East Queensland in recent decades, bringing an estimated $8.1 billion in direct state benefit, a $180 billion regional infrastructure pipeline, and a tourism sector targeting $44 billion in

Happy ears almost bankrupted me. Nine months into building my practice, I had happy ears. Every prospect sounded warm, every coffee felt like progress, and I kept telling myself the pipeline was full while my bank account quietly drained toward zero. The truth was 240 coffees, zero 90 Minute Meetings (Capabilities Presentations), and zero Focus Days (New Clients), and I was lying to myself with a smile as running out of money went from a fear to a real risk. Then I found Proof of Life. We write about it in Chapter 16 of “Fight Less, Win More.” Derek Gaunt and The Black Swan Group built it from hostage negotiation, where you do not send in a team or trade a dollar until you confirm the hostage is breathing, because if they are not alive, there is nothing to talk about. We teach you to open with “Of all the options

There is a point in the life of many growing companies when success starts to feel very different from what the owner imagined. The revenue is growing, the team is getting bigger, and the business has earned a strong reputation. From the outside, people see momentum. They congratulate the owner, ask how they built it, and assume the company’s growth must have created more freedom. Behind the scenes, however, the owner may feel more tied to the business than ever. Their calendar is packed, their phone never seems to stop, and many of the decisions still find their way back to them. I have experienced this from inside a fast-growing company. We had good people, strong results, and plenty of opportunity in front of us, but growth did not automatically make the business easier to run. In many ways, it exposed the areas where we lacked clarity. The team was