What Matters Most Has a Way of Getting Your Attention

As founders, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future.

The next client. The next hire. The next growth milestone. The next chapter.

We are builders by nature. We are wired to look ahead, solve problems, pursue opportunities, and create something meaningful from nothing. It is one of the things I love most about entrepreneurship and one of the reasons many of us chose this path in the first place.

What I have come to realize, however, is that when you spend most of your time focused on what comes next, it can be easy to overlook what is happening right in front of you.

I know I have.

Over the past couple of years, life has given me a perspective that I did not ask for, but one that I am grateful to have received.

In early 2024, my father went to the emergency room with stomach pain.

At 83 years old, he was older, but otherwise healthy and active. The doctors identified an issue that required emergency surgery, and the expectation was straightforward. He would have the procedure, spend a few days recovering in the hospital, and return home.

Instead, he never left the hospital and five days later, he was gone.

Like many families who experience an unexpected loss, we were devastated. One week we were talking about future plans, family gatherings, and what the year ahead might look like. The next week we were planning a funeral.

Nothing prepares you for how quickly life can change.

What followed was a season of life that my brother and I had not anticipated.

After fifty-one years of marriage, my mother suddenly found herself alone. We relocated her closer to family and spent the next fourteen months helping her navigate life without her husband, in a new city after spending more than eighty years in her hometown, while also dealing with the realities of an aging brain.

What started as helping Mom quickly became caregiving.

It was not a responsibility either of us expected, but looking back, it became one of the greatest gifts either of us could have received.

Was it difficult? Absolutely.

There were hard days, emotional days, and moments when the weight of it all felt overwhelming.

But there were also conversations we may never have had otherwise. There was time together that likely would not have existed. There were memories created in ordinary moments that somehow became extraordinary because we knew they mattered.

Fourteen months after losing my father, we lost my mother as well.

While I would never wish that experience on anyone, it reinforced something that I think many founders know intellectually but often struggle to live consistently.

Life is happening while we are building our businesses.

Not after the next big year.

Not after the next exit.

Not after we finally achieve the goal we have been chasing.

Right now.

For most of my career, I believed I was doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Work hard. Build something meaningful. Create opportunities for others. Take care of my family. Pursue ambitious goals.

The problem was not that I had my priorities wrong.

The problem was that I often treated life as something that would happen after I achieved the next milestone.

I suspect I am not alone.

As entrepreneurs, there is always another opportunity to pursue, another challenge to solve, another goal to accomplish. The scoreboard is never finished. The target always moves.

That mindset can be incredibly powerful.

It can also quietly convince us that joy lives somewhere in the future.

What I have come to appreciate is that building a great business and building a great life are not competing goals.

At least they should not be.

The founders I admire most are still ambitious. They still care deeply about growth, performance, and excellence. They still pursue meaningful goals and build remarkable companies.

But they also show up for their families. They invest in friendships. They prioritize their health. They create memories while they are building.

In other words, they do not wait until the journey is over to enjoy it.

As I reflect on the first half of this year and prepare for the second half, I have found myself asking a few questions.

Am I present for the people who matter most?

Am I postponing happiness until after the next achievement?

Am I spending my time in a way that aligns with what I say is important?

If this becomes the best business year of my life, what memories will I create along the way?

I do not have perfect answers to those questions.

In fact, I am still working through them myself.

But I do know this.

Losing both of my parents within fourteen months did not make me less ambitious.

If anything, it made me more intentional.

I still want to build a great business. I still want to pursue meaningful goals. I still want to create opportunities and make an impact.

What has changed is my understanding of time.

The business can always grow next quarter.

The people we love do not always get another quarter.

As we head into the dog days of summer and begin the push toward year end, my hope for all of us is that we continue building, dreaming, and pursuing the goals that matter to us.

But I also hope we remember that while we are busy building a business, we are simultaneously building a life.

And in the end, I am not sure anyone separates those two things as much as we think they do.

Because what matters most has a way of getting your attention.

My hope is that we recognize it before life reminds us to.

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