Hi, I'm Nancy. Welcome back to mindful leadership. This is where we can temporarily set aside the hustle and bustle of the business world and return to inner clarity. Through over 10,000 hours of training and witnessing the transformations of thousands of leaders, I believe that only when you lead yourself with mindfulness can you lead your team and your business towards the most sustainable and meaningful values. In each podcast episode of the Conscious Leadership series , I invite you to step into a moment of quiet reflection, where you can examine your own leadership identity through real-life stories and insightful, thought-provoking questions . We'll be meeting every Sunday at 9 PM on various podcast platforms. And if you want to see more authentic perspectives, the video version will be shared at 11:00 AM on Monday on the Coach Nancy YouTube channel. Hello, sir and madam. This is Coach Nancy. Today I want to start with a rather difficult question. If in three years your business triples in size, but you're three times busier, under three times the pressure, and have no time for the people you love, would you still want that growth? Many of you might be a little quiet because, in business, we're almost always taught that the next year must be bigger than the previous one. Revenue must increase, profits must increase, market share must increase, the team must grow larger, the office must be bigger, and the brand must become more widely known. All of that is true; Coach Nancy always encourages the businesses she coaches to grow, but the more business owners she coaches, the better . I increasingly realize there's a question that needs to precede the question of how to grow. So, what do I want growth for ? When success begins to become a cage. I've met business owners who, from the outside, would be admired by many. Large businesses, good revenue, established position, hundreds of employees, assets, and good relationships. But in private coaching sessions, when there are no employees, partners, or clients around, I hear very different stories. Nancy, I'm so tired, I don't dare rest. Even when I'm away for a few days, I still have to hold my phone to handle work. I built my company so I could have freedom. But now the company itself is taking away my freedom. There are people who own increasingly larger businesses but have less and less of their own time. That's a paradox worth thinking about. We start businesses because we want to be our own bosses, but after 10 or 20 years, some people end up being the busiest employees in the very company they founded. And at that time, coach Nancy often asked, "Is the business serving my life, or is my life serving the business?" This is not an easy question to answer. I also used to ask myself, " What's the point of growing up?" Throughout my own journey , there have been periods when I wanted to do many things. More programs, more customers, more communities, more projects—each new opportunity is incredibly appealing. And for someone with a lot of energy, sometimes the hardest thing isn't finding opportunities, but knowing which opportunities aren't meant for them. There were times when I also had to stop and wonder what Nancy was trying to build. What kind of person do I want to become in five or ten years? What is truly worth spending the rest of my life doing? And if I continue to accept all the opportunities that come my way, am I getting closer or further away from the life I truly want? It is these moments of quiet reflection that help me realize that not every opportunity that helps me grow also leads me in the right direction. And this is something I've seen a lot in CEO coaching: there's a stage in sales where success has to be redefined. In the early years of a startup, growth is usually quite easy to define. Having customers, revenue, profit, and a team—they survive and then thrive. But at a certain point, the question begins to change. It's no longer simply about how to make the company bigger, but about how this business is helping me build a life. How much money do I want to have that's enough? How much time do I want to spend with my family? I want to contribute something to society. I want my children to remember me in a certain way . How do I want the business to function if I'm no longer directly running it, and what kind of person do I want to become during that journey? This is the time for CEOs to shift from a mindset focused on building a great business to a mindset focused on building the right business. True to its value. It's right for this stage of life, right for my abilities, and right for what I want to leave behind. So what should we do with the hanging ? Coach Nancy wants to share three things. First, redefine enough. The first question is n't, what percentage growth will there be next year ? Try asking yourself how much is enough for me? Financially sufficient. Sufficient in scale, sufficient in status, sufficient in time, sufficient in freedom—sufficient does not mean ceasing to be ambitious. Conversely, only when you know what is enough will you know what you are fighting for. Some people want to build a billion-dollar business, which is fantastic. Some people want to build a profitable, independently run business with 200 employees so they can spend more time with their families, which is also a great idea. The important thing isn't which choice is bigger, but which choice is truly yours. Don't live a life where the definition of success is written by someone else. Second, don't just measure the growth of the business. Measure the freedom of the employer. There's one metric that coach Nancy really likes to ask the CEO about. If you disappear from the company for 30 days, what will happen? If a business immediately descends into chaos, it could mean the company is growing but the system isn't large enough, the team isn't large enough, and most importantly, leadership skills haven't been transferred, even though revenue is increasing. But if all decisions remain centered on the CEO, that's not sustainable growth . The larger the business and the more dependent it is on the founder, the more likely the CEO is to become the key to failure. Therefore, try measuring growth using a different standard. Do CEOs have more freedom in larger businesses? Has the team matured ? Are decisions made without waiting for the CEO? Is there a successor ? Does the CEO have more time to dedicate to tasks that only they can handle ? A mature business not only generates more money, it must also become increasingly less dependent on its founder. Third, align your business goals with your life goals. This is the part that Coach Nancy considers most important. Many people have a five-year plan for their company but not a five-year plan for their lives. The business clearly wants to reach 1 billion VND in revenue, but in 5 years, it's unclear what kind of husband, wife , father, or mother I want to be, what my health will be like, what my relationship with my children will be, where I want to live, what I want to dedicate my time to, and what value I want to leave behind . And that's why some people achieve their business goals but only realize they're not where they wanted to be when they reach the destination. Coach Nancy calls this aligning life goals with business goals. A business should not exist in isolation from the life of its founder. It should become a means for you to realize a greater vision of life when those two things meet. A very interesting change occurred. CEOs begin to know what to say yes to and, more importantly, what to say no to . Coach Nancy wants you to bring up three questions. If you're listening to this podcast while driving, don't reply right away. But when you have a quiet moment, take out a piece of paper and write, "Don't respond as CEO." Please answer like a human being. First question. If my business triples in size in the next three years, in what ways would I want my life to be better ? It's not just about your bank account; think about your health, family, time, freedom, happiness, and the person you want to become. The second question is, am I building my business based on what I truly want, or on the definition of success that others expect of me? This is a very difficult question because sometimes we run very fast simply because everyone around us is running too. And finally, if I had enough money and no longer needed to prove anything to anyone, what would I still want to build this business into? Let's dwell on that question for a moment. The answer might be very different from what you're doing today. Coach Nancy doesn't think we need to choose between a successful business and a happy life. What a leader needs is the right mindset to build a business that serves the life they truly want to live. So, the next time you sit down to plan for growth, the question is: how can we make our business bigger? Let's take a few minutes for another question. What's the point of growing up? Ultimately, success isn't about how big a business you build, but whether, along the way , you become the person you want to be and live the life you truly want to live. I am Coach Nancy. Thank you for listening to the awakened provincial leaders. See you again in the next podcast.