Tuesday, 10:32 am. I stared at the screen as the emails stacked up like a wave about to drown me.

Notifications dinged—Slack messages, client emails, and team frustrations. 

My chest was tight.
My coffee had gone cold. 

And the one thought that gripped me, refusing to let go?

“This might be it. The moment my business breaks me.”

But what I didn’t realize was that it was also the problem that made me. 

That problem turned out to be the gift that pushed me over the edge.

That night, after staring at the ceiling for hours, I made the call. 

I was going to sell. 

The next morning, I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a freight train—physically drained, yet strangely calm, like the moment after you finally exhale a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding. 

The weight of my decision to sell wasn’t gone, but for the first time in years, it felt like I could breathe again.

Six weeks later, the sale was finalized. 

My multi-7-figure company, the business that had defined so much of my life, was no longer mine. 

Liberating and terrifying don’t begin to cover it.

In the midst of this transition, my wife and I made another life-altering decision: to pack up and move overseas. 

This time, it wasn’t just the two of us and one small child—it was four kids, countless suitcases, and a new chapter waiting to be written.

What came next, I didn’t see coming. 

I stumbled—almost accidentally—into consulting CEOs. 

These were leaders of 6-, 7-, and 8-figure businesses, men and women grappling with the same kind of problems that had kept me awake at night for years. 

The same problems I thought would break me.

Over the next year, I clocked more than 220 hours working with these CEOs. 

They paid me retainers of up to $25,000 a month to sit with them in their trenches, to roll up my sleeves and do the work most consultants shy away from.

I wrote their sales copy. I coached their team members. I built SOPs from scratch and rewrote broken scripts. 

I even had the tough, often uncomfortable conversations with founders—conversations no one else wanted to have—about why the businesses they’d spent over a decade building were crumbling under them.

One CEO, in particular, pulled me aside after months of working together. 

His face was tight with frustration as he said, “Chris, my team sees you as more in charge than me. I can’t have that. I need to be at the top.” 

And just like that, I was out.

At the core of every successful business is a pile of problems waiting to be solved. 

How many times have you sat at your desk, overwhelmed by the chaos, wondering if it’s all worth it?

Your business is not broken because it has problems.
Your business is the problem.

Think about it…

Every sale you’ve ever made came from solving someone’s problem.
Every system you’ve built,
Every client you’ve helped,
Every dollar you’ve earned.

It all started because a problem knocked on your door and said, “Deal with me.”

And that’s the game we signed up for.

Business isn’t about avoiding problems.

It’s about welcoming them like an old friend. 

Some problems are polite and easy to handle. 

Others? 

They storm in, flip you the bird, track mud all over your floors, and make you question every decision you’ve ever made.

Businesses don’t break because they have problems. They break because they’re afraid of them.

Business, like life, isn’t about avoiding problems. It’s about welcoming them. 

We often run from discomfort, but growth is born in those very moments. 

I’ve learned to see problems as old friends—unpredictable, chaotic, and often a little rude, but friends nonetheless. 

They’re not out to destroy you. 

They’re simply here to teach you. And when you welcome them, that’s when you truly begin to grow.

A polite problem might be a client asking for an extra feature in your service. It’s simple to solve, but it reminds you to stay flexible and open to feedback.

When a big client leaves unexpectedly or a major system failure crashes your sales pipeline, it feels like everything is falling apart. 

But those are the moments when you discover what you’re made of.

Because once you stop fearing problems and start seeing them as opportunities, you can approach them with clarity, intention, and a plan.

One client called me in a panic: their ad spend was bleeding money, their team was on edge, and they were ready to shut it all down. 

‘Pause,’ I told them.
‘Take a breath. No knee-jerk reactions.’ 

Then we broke it down: where was the root of the problem? 

Their campaigns weren’t failing—they were targeting the wrong audience. A few tweaks, and within a month, they’d turned the mess into their best-performing quarter yet.

When you stop running from problems and start running toward them, everything changes.

A problem is not an enemy; it’s success disguised as chaos. 

The question is not “How do I avoid this?”, 

But…

“How can I solve this in a way that is efficient, profitable, and impactful?”

Every great business is a problem-solving machine. 

The better you get at solving problems—your clients’, your team’s, your own…
The stronger, more resilient, and more successful your business becomes.

The next time a problem knocks on your door, don’t flinch.
Greet it.
Give it a hug.
Pour it a drink and ask, “What are you here to teach me?”

As Rumi said “Welcome difficulty as a companion. It may be clearing you out for some new delight.”

The delight? 

That’s the growth you’ll feel when you crack the code,
When you solve the unsolvable,
When you turn a mess into a masterpiece.
This is the work that improves lives—not just for your clients, but for you.

That Tuesday morning at 10:32 am? I thought it was the beginning of the end. 

Turns out, it was the beginning of everything. 

Every mess, every failure, every problem—it didn’t break me. 

It built me.
And it’ll build you too.

The business you’re building is not about avoiding problems; it’s about solving them—and with each one you solve, you step closer to the life you’ve envisioned.

So the next time a problem comes knocking…

Don’t avoid problems.
Don’t resent them.
Welcome them.
Face them.
Solve them.

Because that’s the business you’re in.
And when you embrace the game for what it is…

You unlock the true impact you’re capable of making.
You’ve got this.