Shortly after the British captured New York City from General George Washington in 1776, they devised a plan they believed would end the Revolution. The plan centered on three generals marching from three different locations, all converging on Albany. They felt that by capturing Albany that they would cut off the northern New England colonies from the southern colonies, and in their minds, end the Revolution.
General William Howe would march from the newly captured New York City. General John Burgoyne would come down from Quebec. General Barry St. Leger would come up from the Ohio River Valley. All three generals agreed to the plan.
Burgoyne started south from Quebec. St. Leger headed in from the Ohio River Valley. And General Howe, instead of marching to Albany, audibled to Philadelphia instead.
St. Leger got bogged down by the terrain and Benedict Arnold’s forces, and that left Burgoyne and his forces alone. This resulted in the first major British defeat of the Revolution. The tide of the revolution shifted to the Americans, including getting France to enter the war. And what was supposed to be the end of the Revolution became one of the pivotal moments that led to American freedom.
General Howe didn’t fail. He succeeded, he captured Philadelphia. There was technically nothing wrong with what he did. He just didn’t execute the plan he agreed to.
We’ll never know what would have happened. But if Howe shows up at Saratoga to reinforce Burgoyne, there’s a strong argument the British don’t lose that day. France never enters the war. The Revolution gets suppressed exactly as the British planned.
This very thing is happening right now with business owners across the country in three distinct ways.
The first is inside the business itself. Employees agree to plans, nod their heads, and then go do what they’ve always done. They audible to their own Philadelphia.
The second is inside the personal advisory team. The accountant does what accountants do. The investment manager does what investment managers do. The estate attorney does what estate attorneys do. Everyone is technically executing their job. Just like General Howe technically executed his. But nobody is marching on Albany together.
The third, is the relationship between business and personal wealth. Oftentimes personal wealth will be marching to Albany while business wealth is marching to Philadelphia. There is almost no alignment between business and personal aspirations. And this misalignment is one reason why so many business owners fail at reaching their maximum wealth potential.
The truth is you’re making more money than most people. The business is producing revenues that most business owners would be envious of. And yet somehow the wealth that should be accumulating isn’t there the way the numbers say it should be. It is my belief that this is a coordination problem. And it is costing you more than any fee ever could.
How many times have you launched a new initiative, cast a new big vision of the future of the company, and then arrived at year’s end wondering why nothing actually changed or at very least why the growth was the same as last year? The work happened. People were busy. But the company didn’t make any meaningful progress towards your vision.
Your employees did exactly what General Howe did. They audibled to Philadelphia.
If I walked into your business and asked ten people, from your CEO down to your janitor, what this company stands for, where it’s going, and what the priorities are for this year, would I get the same answer from all ten?
In most businesses I walk into, the answer is no.
That’s not an effort problem or the wrong people problem. That’s an alignment problem. If you want your employees to march with you toward where you’re going, Albany has to be clearly defined. Everyone in the building has to know exactly where it is you are heading and why.
But having alignment within your business alone isn’t enough.
80% of businesses do not sell. And for most business owners, 80 to 90% of their net worth is tied up in that unexitable business. If we are putting all of our wealth eggs in the business basket, what happens when it doesn’t sell?
It could work out. It does for some. But for most, it doesn’t. And betting your financial future on the most illiquid, hardest to transfer asset you own is not one that works out for most people.
Which means we must also build wealth outside the business. And to do that we need our advisors aligned around us, not just doing their individual jobs, but working together toward the same destination.
Has your accountant ever met with your investment advisor? Has your estate attorney ever sat down with your accountant? Have you ever had all of those people in the same room at the same time?
Do they even know where you want to go? Have you told them, this is the legacy I want to leave, this is the net worth I want, this is the life I am building toward, this is the impact I want to create? Or have they been dictating the direction to you all along?
Are you marching to their Albany or to yours?
Most business owners don’t discover the misalignment between their business and their personal finances when they’re in their forties and the business is growing. They discover it at sixty-three, when they get the valuation back and it’s not the number they have been expecting for fifteen years. Or when the buyer walks away because they are being “unreasonable.” Or when the health event arrives before the exit does. That’s when the math becomes visible and what it shows is that the business itself was the only plan.
Meanwhile, the income kept coming in, the lifestyle kept expanding, and nobody, not the accountant, not the investment advisor, not the attorney, ever sat down and said: if this business doesn’t sell for what you think it will, what does your life look like? Because none of them knew what the others were assuming. And the owner never asked the question because the size of the income made it feel like it didn’t need asking.
The countdown was always running. Nobody turned on the display.
If you want an eight figure net worth, you cannot build it by hoping the business sells for the right number someday. You build it by making the business worth that number while simultaneously building a personal financial strategy that protects and grows what the business produces. The most probable outcome doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because both sides of your financial life were marching in the same direction at the same time.
The British didn’t just lose the Battle of Saratoga. They lost America. Because one general won a battle he probably could have won eventually anyway, and in so doing, left the original plan to die without him.
So what is your America?
Most of the owners I work with didn’t start their business for the income. They started it because entrepreneurship showed them a version of themselves they had never seen before. Someone who could build something. Leave something. Fund something that outlasted them.
That version of yourself has a price. It requires all three layers to be marching together long enough for your aspirations to have a chance at coming to pass. And when they’re not, when the countdown runs out, you don’t lose everything. You still have a house. You still have income. You just don’t get to become who you discovered you were.
That’s what’s actually at stake. Not the money. Not the business. The person you set out to become when you started it all.
Are you marching toward that person, or are you marching to Philadelphia?
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