42 WESTERN PALLET
What's the Point, Anyway?
Picture this: It’s Wednesday afternoon, and I’m sitting in the conference room. I just finished a great meeting, and now I’m riding a serious endorphin high.
Suddenly, in bursts my partner. He slumps down in the chair across from me, looking like he just lost a fight.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
He didn’t seem to hear me.
“What’s the point, anyway?” he muttered defeatedly.
“What’s the matter?” I interjected louder.
That seemed to bring him around.
He looked at me and said, “I’m hearing rumblings that people are upset about their Christmas bonuses…”
He didn’t have to finish.
It had been a lean year—not super bad, but not great. In fact, anyone who said they were crushing it in that market was full of it. Long story short, there wasn’t a lot of margin to go around. In fact, we didn’t really have anything extra. But the idea of not giving out Christ- mas bonuses was something that we couldn’t stand. So, we robbed some from here and some from there, managing to scrape together enough to do a little, just not as much as before.
It hurt us deeply to not be able to match what we’d been able to do in previous years. But ultimately, we gave what we could.
Apparently, some didn’t like it.
I thought back to when our coach helped us develop a set of Core Values that would help guide the company we were building.
WE GIVE—not to make friends, not to make a name for ourselves, and not to get anything back—because we’re grateful to God, the Ultimate Giver.
That’s right.
Our giving isn’t about how others receive it; it’s an outpouring of gratitude.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
-- Winston Churchill
____________________________________________________________________________________
As business leaders, we have no shortage of opportunities to be DISCOURAGED.
Think about it. It’s one thing to have everything blow up when you make a bad call. But having it all go south when you’re doing the RIGHT THING?!? That’s a tough pill to swallow.
This is when we lean on that one, simple, little word, w-h-y. I believe that it is critical that we define our why and keep the answer close so that we can access it in moments when we start to lose hope—why do we do what we do?
As we close the year behind us and look forward to the one ahead, let’s frame our reflection in the context of WHY.
Living and leading from “why” starts with three questions:
What is the galvanizing purpose of my life—the immovably true reason “why” I do what I do?
In the pursuit of my “why,” what is the anchor of my hope—the unshakable fact that is the foundation of my “why?”
As I navigate all the noise, what is the basis of my self-definition, the thing through which I find the courage to live with Nothing to Lose, Nothing to Prove, and Nothing to Hide?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Wrapping up 2025
What are some ways that you’ve lived true to your “why” in 2025?
What are some practical things that you can do to lean into it more intentionally in 2026?