If you have spoken to me in the last three months you have probably heard me say something along the lines of "I feel like I am about 100m from the peak of Mount Everest and I just can't see what's over the top".
Have you felt like that this year? I have been consciously putting my eggs into YES baskets, seeing what kind of eggs they'll end up being and right now they are all still incubating and nothing has cracked.
If you have spoken to me in the last three months you have probably heard me say something along the lines of “I feel like I am about 100m from the peak of Mount Everest and I just can’t see what is over the top”.
Have you felt like that this year? I have been consciously putting my eggs into YES baskets, seeing what kind of eggs they will end up being and right now they are all still incubating and nothing has cracked.
But it feels like every day I edge close to something.
I know the phrase “what got you here is not going to get you there” gets thrown around a lottttt in business but nothing else feels appropriate when we look at this year. I keep seeing talk of “purpose” and “impact” but honestly? What a privileged position from which to view things.
Trying to run a business when your bank balance makes you feel queasy is a completely different sport to running a business from the safety of a chunky runway. The entire conversation shifts when you are trying to figure out what to post on Instagram while also wondering if you have made a huge mistake and should have just stayed employed. I know this tension is real for a lot of people because I hear it every week.
And I think we need to talk about it without pretending it is something softer.
The people who preach “lead with purpose not profit” tend to be the ones who are not worrying about rent this month. The people saying “income is not everything” tend to already have income. None of that makes them wrong, but it does mean they are speaking from a very different baseline.
If you are scraping by, clinging to the hope that you are inches from a breakthrough that has not materialised yet, hearing people float around talking about impact as if revenue is a dirty word can make you feel unhinged.
You can love your work. You can care deeply about your clients. You can want to help people. All of that can be true. And you can still need your business to make money. This is not hypocrisy. This is adulthood.
Most of us did not quit secure jobs, predictable salaries, and sensible career ladders so we could sit on the floor manifesting purpose. We left because we wanted to use our brains differently and we wanted to earn more.
Purpose is lovely when you can afford it. Impact is wonderful when your mortgage is sorted. But when you are pushing for that next five per cent, ten per cent, when you are trying to grow without burning out or giving up, the conversation needs to be honest.
Money matters. Money is how you get to keep doing the work that feels meaningful. Money is how you buy breathing room. Money is how you avoid crawling back to indeed.com at 1am and looking at job ads that make your soul rattle.
So if you are ending this year feeling stretched, hopeful, tired, and about three steps from a breakthrough that refuses to show itself, you are not wrong for wanting to make more money next year. You are not shallow. You are not behind. You are not missing the spiritual point of business.
You are building something real. And real things need resourcing.
Purpose without profit is charity. Impact without income is a hobby. Neither pays your tax bill.
And if all you want in 2026 is to finally feel like your effort is matched by your income, I promise you this is a valid goal. You do not owe anyone a poetic mission statement. You owe yourself stability and a fair return for the work you put in.
More soon. I am still walking those final 100 metres. I know some of you are too.
Zx