Business is out of touch with the lives of the people who support it and that is why businesses fail.
We get caught up chasing incomes, achievements and social status. The chase has a way of luring us into believing the wrong things. The longer we go believing the wrong things the more "out of touch" we become with the things that really matter most. The same is true for any business.
There is one common denominator in business, people. Think about it. No product or service could be created without human interaction. No product or service could be sold without human attraction. No business can grow without human attention. So human interaction, attraction and attention are the three things that enables a business to create value. However, the quality of human interaction, attraction and attention is what determines how much value is created.
Creating Increased Value
If you ask a stock trader how does a business create value the answer would be improved share price. If you ask a CEO how does the business create value they would likely say increased profitable revenue. If you asked a single mother of two how can a business create more value for you the answer would likely be give me more time with my children.
For a business to succeed it has to be able to "touch" people in a way that creates value. Business leaders have been misled to believe that chasing money is the way to obtain or create more value. Money provides value but chasing it destroys value.
An HBR Article titled Wehn Good People Work for Bad states: Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, during his battle with cancer, helped answer his own ethical questions by looking inward he wrote, "I have a pretty clear idea of how my ideas have generated enormous revenue for companies that have used my research; I know I've had a substantial impact. But as I've confronted this disease, it's been interesting to see how unimportant that impact is to me now. I've concluded that the metric by which God will assess my life isn't dollars but the individual people whose lives I've touched."
Chasing money does not improve interaction, attraction and attention to the people who matter most in your life and your business. Don't wait until you lose those people before you realize what matters most to them and you.