Two business partners ran a successful company together, but one of them left the business after a few years. He could no longer continue to build the company that meant so much to him. Couldn´t or wouldn´t?

He realised that he had lived in the shadow of someone else all this time… he realised that his priorities had changed and that the organisation he loved so much had never been in line with his life values. “What are my values?“ He asked himself. And the voice replied, “Family, respect and fair play.“ The moment he uttered these three magical words aloud, he replayed in his head the last ten years of his professional life.

Suddenly he understood a lot of things and everything started to make much more sense. Their business was prosperous and it attracted very good talents, but he just couldn´t keep them. He repeatedly resolved conflicts and the atmosphere in the office was negative and toxic. He invested a lot of time and money into managerial development, team building and benefits, but even that did not bear fruit. He worked long hours and felt like a slave to his business. For ten years he followed his business partner, who founded the company, and tried to adapt to the style it had always been. He became physically and mentally exhausted over time, and it was one day that he closed his eyes and asked himself, “Why do I feel this way?”. The face of his lonely business partner appeared behind his closed eyes. This was the trigger to realising he had to get off this train.

The whole company was a reflection of the owner of the company and his negative energy. His fears and doubts spread from roots to all branches of the company around the world. His paranoia suffocated every employee so much that they stopped respecting him. All his nightmares materialised because he thought about them every day, and more importantly, kept talking about them. He had experienced everything he feared in his business, and the list was really long. He constantly felt sorry for himself and became a victim in his mind. It aroused regret and pity in people because he has forgotten his uniqueness and wisdom. His self-sabotaging behaviour has led to unhealthy habits. And yet his only wish was to run a stable company from the beach using nothing more than a tablet so to finally have more time for his children… He has still not yet reached his vision and goal, but maybe the right time has come for him to ask himself the simple question of Why?