Drop the Ego
The most expensive thing you carry into a room
Why are you getting this? You’re a part of my life in one way or another.
Our agreement: if you find Curated valuable, share it with someone who would too.
Upcoming Events
June 12 | SMB Coffee Club | small-circle meetup for curious, driven people
June 19 | SMB Coffee Club: Healthcare Edition | small-circle meetup for curious, driven people
Drop the Ego
When I was younger I thought I knew it all. Walk into any new industry and I figured I’d have it figured out in a month. Smart enough, driven enough, I’d catch up fast.
Then I bought Novel.
It was my first time owning a business, and I quickly realized I didn’t know the first thing about most of it. The production side. The day-to-day of running shops. The thousand small tricks you only learn by doing it for years. Some of the existing team members understood parts of the business better than I did. That’s a strange thing to sit with when you’re the one who just signed the papers.
I had two options. Pretend I knew, and protect the image of the confident new owner. Or admit I didn’t, and actually learn from the people in front of me.
My ego wanted the first one badly. I dropped it. Not gracefully, not all at once, but I dropped it. And it was the single best thing I did and still do in the early days of anything new.
Here’s what I’ve come to understand about ego since then.
Confidence and ego aren’t the same thing. One makes you better, the other just makes you defensive. The ego is the part of you that needs to be right. That flinches at feedback. That reads a hard conversation as an attack instead of information. It shows up everywhere once you start looking for it.
Ego makes you protect the version of yourself you want people to see, even when it costs you the thing you actually want.
The best operators I know ask more questions than they answer. They’re not performing humility. They genuinely don’t need to be the smartest person in the room, which frees them up to actually learn something.
Dropping the ego doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself. It means thinking about yourself less. In negotiation, it means you can lose a point and still win the deal. With your partner, it means you can be the first to say you were wrong without it feeling like a loss. In a new venture, it means the most experienced person in the room becomes your teacher instead of your competition.
The hardest part is that ego feels like protection. It feels like it’s keeping you safe. It’s not. It’s keeping you small.
I’m still not great at this. I catch myself reaching for the defensive version more often than I’d like. But every time I manage to set it down, the same thing happens. The conversation gets better and so does the work.
Confidence says I can handle being wrong. Ego says I can’t afford to be. One of those is a strategy. The other is just fear wearing a nicer suit.
Random Plugs
Most healthcare operators overpay on their lease and never know it. The wrong location, a few bad clauses, a TI allowance they left on the table, it quietly costs them for the next ten years.
That’s the part I fix.
I’m a licensed Arizona agent on both sides. Residential is straightforward: buying, selling, or leasing a home anywhere in the country, I’ve got you.
Commercial is where I’ve gone deep, and I work with one kind of client: healthcare operators. Dental, medical, chiropractic, fitness, pharmacy, therapy, veterinary, vision, etc.
If you run one of those and you’re opening your first location or expanding to your next, that’s exactly the deal I want to be in.
Reply to this email and let’s talk. Know an operator who’s expanding? Forward this to them.
Good Book
Working through this book now: Notes on Being a Man
About to start this one: Amp It Up
Good Music
Community Partners
Travis and Tyler (Nice Pest Control) - With over a decade of expertise, they’re fully equipped to tackle even the toughest challenges. They’re in the business to ensure your home stays cozy and bug-free, day in and day out.
Domenick Rocchio (Happy Hopper) – Happy Hopper is the largest database of food and drink deals, helping bars and restaurants increase traffic and revenue.
That’s a wrap!
Enjoy the read? Check out one of my biz’s at Veer Concepts.
Forwarded this message? Subscribe here.
Have a solid week ✌️
- Shawn