Donald Miller

what the economic objectives are, what your department is doing to hit those objectives, and what every person is doing to hit those objectives. And if you actually install those meetings into your organization, it's impossible to forget where we're going and why you're so important to actually help us achieve where we're going.

I personally am a fan of not hiding the numbers, not hiding how much money we're making, not hiding how many orders came in. I don't want to hide any of that. The reason that small business owners don't like exposing the numbers to their team members is because it exposes the fact that the company is making millions and the team member is making $40,000. And all they see is that disparity.

But the way you actually get around that or get over that is you actually give the entire team a really great economic education. So you actually say, look, we're making $2 million this year. Our overhead is about $1.2 million. That means there's $800,000 left, and we're going to give half of that to the government. So that's $400,000 that's left. We have to put X amount in our rainy day fund.

So at the end of the day, this is about what I make and this is about what you make. But if you can help us make more and if you have ideas to help us make more, your salary will go up as well. And I just love teaching all 30 of my employees how a small business really, really works. They, by the way, know. They pretty much know exactly what I'm making, which is a lot of money.

So at the end of the day, this is about what I make and this is about what you make. But if you can help us make more and if you have ideas to help us make more, your salary will go up as well. And I just love teaching all 30 of my employees how a small business really, really works. They, by the way, know. they pretty much know exactly what I'm making, which is a lot of money.

They also know that we're incredibly generous with that money. They know that we bought a building that houses the business. That building is incredibly expensive. Yes, it's an asset that my family will be able to own 50 and 60 years from now, but I don't get that cash. I bought that... building so that we could all live inside of this building. I just don't hide the numbers.

They also know that we're incredibly generous with that money. They know that we bought a building that houses the business. That building is incredibly expensive. Yes, it's an asset that my family will be able to own 50 and 60 years from now, but I don't get that cash. I bought that Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And then if somebody gets upset about that and resents that, they don't belong on my team. Or if they get upset about that and resent that, I sit them down and I say, would you like to run a business? Because if you leave me and you run a business, I will do everything I can to help you because I want you to experience this too. Let me tell you what also happens. Everything stops with you.

If that business fails, it's your fault. The government doesn't come for my employees. They come for me if I don't pay taxes. Somebody slips on a banana peel in my parking lot, they don't sue you. They sue me. And I just want you to know there's an enormous amount of risk in starting a business. But if you can make it work, it's worth it. and I will help you do it.

But at this point, you work for me, and I need you to produce more. And that conversation, why not just tell them the truth? I think one of the reasons that Americans feel like victims, especially the generation behind me and the generation behind them, are not going to make as much money as their parents is because they don't actually understand how money works.

And I want to teach everybody I can, this is how money works. And I don't want anybody excluded from being able to participate. It's high risk. It's high stress. But if you want to go for it, I'm all for you. Let's go for it. I'll help you.

One of the great things about core values, I think, is it helps you define an aspirational identity. This is who we're going to be. We're going to be people who love our jobs. We're going to be people who care about each other, have each other's backs. Those are core values. And so when you point to core values, you're basically pointing to what's expected if you were going to work here.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, one of the downfalls of core values is they're always vague. And if somebody says our core value is integrity, if you caught a bank robber in mid-bank robbery, And you said, explain to me why you're doing this. I promise you they're going to defend their integrity. These rich people have all the money and I'm taking it to whatever.

They're robbing a freaking bank and they think they have integrity. So it's just too vague. So I like core values, but more than that, I like two other things, key characteristics and critical actions. Now, key characteristics are the characteristics that you need to have in order for us to hit our economic objectives. If I run a pet store, I need you to love pets.

If we run a software company, I need you to obsess about the easy, simple user interfaces. And so now I know who to hire. I'm not just hiring somebody with integrity. I'm hiring somebody with integrity who loves animals. So those key characteristics are more true to your team than they are to anybody else. It's where you actually dial down into the uniqueness of your culture.

Now, critical actions go even further. Critical actions are the things that we are all going to do together to hit our economic objectives. If I have a restaurant and one of my economic objectives is we're going to sell 35% for every client for our customers to come to the restaurant, 35% of them are going to get a dessert. Well, we're at 15%.

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