You can’t judge a business from the driveway. The car, the plane, and the house don’t tell you whether the company works without its owner. Give me 12 minutes, and I’ll show you how to build one that can.

As a business owner with teams across several companies, I want people around me who can tell me I’m about to do something stupid. The hard part is making sure they’ll do it a second time. If I argue with every concern, interrupt the explanation, then go looking for somebody who agrees with me, I’m teaching the team exactly how to handle me. Eventually I’ll have a room full of smart people waiting to hear what I think. That’s an expensive way to talk to yourself.

Everybody says raise your prices. One of the things I like to look at in my companies is favors. The special report. The custom invoice. The rush order. The weekly call that somehow needs four of your best people. Each one sounds reasonable. Put them all together and you’ve got a whole lot of work nobody’s charging for. You can charge full price and still give the business away. Before calling someone a great customer, ask the people who actually take care of them.

One trap for ambitious people: confusing access with responsibility. You get invited to the meeting. Sit next to the founder. Hear how every big decision gets made. But you never get to make one. Five years later, you’re very experienced at watching somebody else lead. Find people who’ll teach you, then trust you with something that matters.

I used AI this week to compare suppliers, packaging costs and shipping estimates for a launch. Here’s a business model I’d be nervous about: charging a premium because the customer hasn’t had time to shop around. I’ll still pay for someone who can fix the wrong shipment, protect the deadline and own the problem. But the customer being too busy to get a second quote? That’s a fragile business plan.

I spent summers working HVAC and electrical with my dad. Hanging air handlers. Setting condensing units. Running wire. I love these businesses. So I’d like more acquisition pitches to answer one question: Why would the people doing the work want you as their new owner? Better tools? A better manager? A chance to grow? “We got a good multiple” doesn’t do much for the person you need showing up Monday.

Before you ask “Who missed this?” ask “What would have caught it sooner?” A bad hire. A wrong invoice. A missed customer promise. Accountability should improve the next result. If all it produces is a nervous meeting, you bought fear and called it management.

If every hire has to arrive fully trained, your company is depending on somebody else to develop talent. Before the next hire, name the person who will teach them. Define what they should be able to do in 90 days. “We hire great people” is only half a strategy.

“We’ll improve operations after we buy it.” Great. Who is “we”? Which person can fix the problem? What will they need? What has already been tried? A spreadsheet can show the upside. It can’t do the work. Underwrite the operator as hard as the opportunity.

Stating the obvious here, but the dopamine hit I get from using AI to actually accomplish something is unreal. I find myself looking for more things to do just to experience it again.

Want to build massive enterprise value? Try spending 90% of your time on people. Recruiting exceptional talent. Developing the people you have. Putting them in a position to win. “But who handles everything else?” That’s who you’re developing or hiring. Talent is how your ambition gets bigger than your calendar.

“Hire people smarter than you.” Finally, a business strategy where I have a competitive advantage.

Everyone says build a company that runs without you so you can escape it. I say build one so you can expand it. Recruit and develop people who can take it further than you could alone. There’s never been a better time to build. Why make yourself the ceiling?