It never ceases to amaze me how many business owners live in denial.
On the surface, they tell themselves, and everyone else, that everything is completely fine. They think their team is fine, their operations are okay, and their customers love them.
Yet, beneath that comfortable exterior, a very different reality is playing out:
- They aren’t sleeping well at night.
- They are regularly giving up their nights and weekends to keep up.
- They are living with a business that is quite literally sucking the life out of them.
My definition of denial is simple: “Don’t even know I am lying to myself.”
It is the single most dangerous place to operate from because it feels safe. We get comfortable there. We start defaulting to phrases like:
- “Oh, it’s not that bad.”
- “We’ll figure it out.”
- “That’s just how it is in our industry.”
- “You just don’t understand.”
The True Cost of “Everything is fine.”
When we tell ourselves these falsehoods, nothing changes and nothing improves. Even worse, you inadvertently pass this behavior down. You teach your team and your clients that operating in chaos is acceptable. You train your people not to provide critical feedback or question systemic flaws, creating blind spots and delaying crucial decisions.
Eventually, you wake up and realize you’ve been operating this way for years. By then, the damage has compounded:
- Lost opportunities that are never coming back.
- Poor financial and organizational performance.
- Great employees who simply couldn’t take the frustration anymore and left.
Moving Above the Point of Power
The good news is that you aren’t stuck here. Breaking the cycle takes a single, definitive decision to stop ignoring what is glaringly obvious to everyone else.
It requires a decision to own your ship.
In coaching, we call this living above the Point of Power—choosing to exhibit true ownership, accountability, and responsibility. When you step above that line, you stop merely reacting to crises and start responding thoughtfully. You begin to lead intentionally and drive better outcomes.
With that choice comes clarity. And in business, clarity is power.
If you are truly ready to step out of denial and choose a different path, let’s talk. We can look at how the ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABOS) can help you pinpoint your current blind spots and build a concrete plan to eliminate them.
Author: Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY