Ep. 341 — Kevin W. McCarthy: A Sense of Purpose vs. Knowing Yours

5 min read

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Episode Summary

Most boomer owners I talk to have a sense of why they built the company and no actual answer to it. The bank account grew. The team grew. The calendar stayed busy. And the question of who you are when the business is no longer the thing keeps getting pushed to next quarter. I had Kevin W. McCarthy back on the show because he’s been doing this work since the mid-80s, before purpose was cool, before every Fortune 100 annual report tried to claim one. Kevin built a tool at onpurpose.me that produces a two-word purpose statement in three minutes (mine came back “revealing purpose,” and yeah, that about sums it up). We got into why owners delay selling because they don’t know what’s next, why a P&L without a higher aim is the same as a football team with no game plan, and the seven Tough Shift questions Kevin walks people through (is life meaningful, who am I, why am I here, where am I going, how do I get there, what’s important, how do I make a difference). Real story from his own buyout in the 80s, real reason this is the work most owners skip.

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## Top 10 Takeaways
  1. Purpose is a matter of the heart. Vision is in your head. Don’t confuse the two.
  2. You can settle for a sense of purpose, or you can actually know yours. Most owners settle.
  3. The triple bottom line runs purpose, people, profit, in that order. Reverse it and you fail at all three.
  4. Wealth comes from the word for wellbeing. The work after the sale is another expression of the same purpose.
  5. Your identity and your identifiers are different. The hats you wear (CEO, founder, dad) are not who you are.
  6. If you over-control your team, you hired bodies. If you hired souls, you can get out of their way.
  7. Once you know your purpose, you have an advantage over who you were five minutes before.
  8. Most boomer owners delay selling because they cannot answer what’s next. The fear is fair.
  9. Tough Shift’s seven questions: meaning, identity, purpose, vision, mission, values, service. Skip them at your cost.
  10. Managing a P&L without a vision is coaching football by demanding touchdowns with no game plan.

Sound Bites

“When you retire within 18 months, the number of men who die within 18 months after they retire, because they have lost their sense, just a sense of meaning and purpose.” (@TBD) — Kevin W. McCarthy

“Would you, if I could give you a sense of pizza or an actual bite of pizza, which would you sooner have? And so people are willing to settle for a sense of purpose instead of actually knowing their purposes.” (@TBD) — Kevin W. McCarthy

“If you’re managing a P&L, it’d be like trying to manage a football team by saying you’ve got to score the most touchdowns, but we’re not going to have a game plan. We’re not going to recruit the right players. We’re not going to talk to you about how to win.” (@TBD) — Kevin W. McCarthy

“I had a $20 million business that lost $950,000, and if we would have sold it, we would have owed the bank money. So try me again.” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom

About This Episode

Kevin W. McCarthy is the founder of On-Purpose and author of The On-Purpose Person, The On-Purpose Business Person, The Chief Leadership Officer, and his newest book Tough Shift. He’s been doing purpose work since the mid-1980s, decades before the word became corporate shorthand. Kevin earned his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School and built a real estate advisory practice that pivoted into purpose work when he realized his clients couldn’t make sound business decisions because they didn’t know who they were or why they were there. He has previously been on the show (Ep. 58) and returns here to walk Ryan through the two-word purpose statement tool, the seven Tough Shift questions, and the triple bottom line of purpose, people, and profit.

Resources Mentioned

  • On Purpose — Kevin’s site and the home of his books, tools, and weekly On Purpose Post. — onpurpose.com
  • The Two-Word Purpose Tool — $20, takes about three minutes, comes with an email follow-up course. — onpurpose.me
  • Tough Shift — Kevin’s newest book plus the free monthly webinar and the Tough Shift Turnaround program. — toughshift.com
  • The On-Purpose Person by Kevin W. McCarthy — Personal purpose, vision, mission, values.
  • The On-Purpose Business Person by Kevin W. McCarthy — Organizational purpose, vision, mission, values.
  • The Chief Leadership Officer by Kevin W. McCarthy — On the broken CEO system and the triple bottom line.
  • Finish Big by Bo Burlingham — Referenced for the 75% of owners unhappy after the sale, and the 25% who knew who they were and what they wanted from the business.
  • Halftime Institute (Bob Buford / Lloyd Reeb) — Referenced for the success-to-significance frame.
  • I’m Okay, You’re Okay — The book Kevin borrowed from his mom at age 12 that started the agency question.
  • Senior Tennis Tips — Kevin’s Facebook group, 37,500+ members worldwide.

Connections

Phase + Module:

Milestones inside Ownership Goals:

Concepts referenced:

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