Inc.: Let's go back to that world where the business owner has the bat and ball. How do we reconcile the owner's interests, needs, and wants with the legitimate interests of all the other constituencies that are necessary to make the business really work? Don't they all need to be in alignment? Doesn't there have to be compromise?
Goodman: Of course, absolutely. And the process is coming to the table and saying, "I'm the entrepreneur. Look, I've got some legitimate interests here," and you as an employee say, "Well, I have my own interests." Then we put our heads together and figure out how to make our interests converge. Think about it. You do this every time you have a salary review or a career-planning discussion, and it's implicit in every strategic-planning meeting. If those interests can't be made to converge, then you have to look the employee in the eye and say, "We don't have a relationship here. It's time for you to go do something else, and I'll find somebody who is going in the same direction as I am." And we can do that respectfully and with mutual concern and support for each other's transition. Because the issue for the entrepreneur ultimately boils down to leverage. How do I leverage myself?
Inc.: What do you say to somebody who comes back to you and says, "I don't have the choices you think I have. I can't act on my own real self-interest because I have almost a moral obligation to care for all these other constituencies out there. And they are just too powerful; there are too many of them." Are you suggesting that unless you care about your own self-interest at least as much as you do about all the others in your business relationships, that what you're doing won't work?
Goodman: A year or so ago, a client asked me to come out and spend a day with him, meeting his people and seeing his business, and then give him my thoughts on what he might do to make things better. Over lunch I heard him say (for the third time that day), "Well, I chose not to take on that battle." I stopped him and said, "Let's get something clear. It's not OK for your business to be unresponsive to your needs. It's not OK to be doing battle with your business over those things that you feel strongly about. It's your business. If it's not responsive to your needs, whose needs should it be responsive to?" Not being clear about your needs puts your relationship with your business at risk, absolutely. If you don't know how to treat yourself like a customer, then you don't know how to take care of your own legitimate interests. You don't know how to look a client in the eye and say, "No, I can't meet with you Tuesday because I have a strategic-planning meeting." And I'll tell you something. Your customers will respect you when they see clearly that you're taking care of your own business. In fact, that will give them the confidence that you're serious about being in it for the long haul and taking care of them. Relationships work only when there is mutual fulfillment of needs.
Inc.: So you're suggesting that a huge factor in creating a successful enterprise rests in discovering the magic formula for pleasing all the people all the time, including yourself?
Goodman: The real job of leading an enterprise is understanding what those legitimate interests are and creating a system by which, to the greatest degree possible, everybody's legitimate interests get satisfied. That's how you create alignment. That's how you create coherence and vitality. And that's how you create an enterprise that's going to be consistently successful for the long haul. Now, in that context where is there room for the CEO or the owner of the company to say, "Well, I should sacrifice myself at the altar of this business so that everybody else can get their legitimate needs satisfied"? Where does that fit in? It doesn't.
Inc.: But doesn't that slow down the growth of your company?
Goodman: Look, I think the opportunity that exists for entrepreneurs more than anything else is to create really human environments. Because in the final analysis, a sense of meaning is so much more important than just money. Ultimately, it puts us in a position where we are better able to serve. Because when we are emotionally bankrupt by virtue of having burned ourselves out, then we have nothing to give. On the other hand, when our hearts are full, our lives are full, we've learned to leverage ourselves, and we've learned to exercise the highest capabilities that we have as human beings, then we can give at such bigger, more powerful levels. And that is the ultimate reward.
Inc.: But just how realistic is it for an entrepreneur yoked to the goal of fast growth to be able to step back and reflect on whether everyone's interests are aligned? Isn't it excruciatingly difficult to step off the growth path for such reflection and then expect to be able to hop back on?
Goodman: Your question misses the point. That is precisely how you create fast growth. And it's hard. So what? What else are you doing that's so important? Also, I don't buy this notion of either grow or die. There are times when that's true, but most of the time it's not. We lose sight of the fact that we live better than the pharaohs. Does it really matter if we make $1 million, $5 million, or $50 million? So the real question is, again, how can I create a life that I will look back on as an incredible shining adventure, and how can the business be a vehicle to help me accomplish that?
