What do you want, anyway?

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I remember about 3 months ago, Chad and I were on the phone.  

(If you don’t know Chad, he’s Well Built’s Founder/CEO, and you’re missing out, because he’s one of the best construction consultants in the world). 

I am learning how to become a great construction consultant myself. And one of the areas I decided I needed to work on in 2025 was my long-range strategic thinking ability. So, when Chad and I were on the phone for one of our weekly 1-1 coaching calls, I asked him, “How do I know if [Company Name] should stay in construction or not? Their Service Business makes plenty of money, and I can’t tell if keeping the construction division open makes sense.” 

Chad asked me a simple question: “Well, what does the owner want?” 

I thought for a moment. 

“I know he wants to win the game. He is a competitor, and he loves winning and running up the score. He wants to dominate.” 

“Dominate what? Profit? Or revenue?” Chad asked. 

“Both.” 

“Well then, advise him to stay in construction. Service margins will be higher, but if he wants to dominate revenue too, then large construction projects are the way to do that.” 

“Wow”, I said. “That makes a lot of sense.” 

Chad said, “It’s all about what the owner wants.” 

** 

One thing I love about this message is its simplicity. What does the owner want? Business isn’t as complicated when you put it like that. 

I know there are many owners or Executives reading this and thinking about which direction they should take their business. 

• Should we grow? 

• How big should we get? 

• What clients should we chase after? 

• What’s next? 

All of it comes back to the same answer: It depends on what you want. 

And I’ve learned that it is okay to want a small business. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be able to make some people some money, make yourself a lot of money, buy a couple houses, and treat your team really great. That is a super cool direction. 

It’s also awesome when there are business owners who want to maximize everything, meaning they want to keep growing and growing and creating value for hundreds and thousands of people. Those owners end up building companies like some of the biggest names in our industry.  

Plus, there’s everyone in between. And none of them are bad.  

The key is that each of them should know what they want. Because if you want to be small and make lots of money, but you’re chasing complicated, large, public projects? You are going to accidentally create a business that you hate. You may even resent it. 

And if you want to be a big behemoth, but you can’t stop doing little projects because you suck at saying “no”? Then you’ll get stuck and feel supremely frustrated that you’re not making more money every year.  

So, if you are a business owner or Executive, do yourself a favor and ask yourself one question right now: What do I want? 

The answer to that question is your strategic direction. Your north star. And now that you know where you’re headed, everything else becomes clearer.  

Spark Notes:

• Strategic decisions in business start with a simple but powerful question: What do I want?

• Whether you want to grow huge or stay small and profitable, clarity about your goals is what drives the right choices.

• There’s no right or wrong ambition—what matters is aligning your business direction with what you genuinely want.

• Without that clarity, you risk building a company you resent instead of one you love.