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Here's session one. Let's talk about mission, values, behavior, and vision. We're in here, we're right deep in your soul, in your heart, in the core of your business.

First, we're going to look at an organizational fitness assessment. We'll give you this form if you ask. You go through and rate your business on knowledge and teamwork, attitudes and values, timeliness, structure, role clarity, documentation, policies and procedures, management processes, and people. You give yourself a score.

Next, read the article in the Harvard Business Review titled "Steve Jobs, World's Greatest Philanthropist." It's an amazing article. The position was put to Steve Jobs: "Why haven't you given more money to charity?" He responded that he tried. He sold his stock in Apple, started a foundation, hired the best guy in the world, and spent two years trying to figure out what to do. Then he realized his unique gift was building computer companies. So he shut the foundation and returned to NeXT, and then Apple. Jobs created more jobs and return on capital than probably any human in history.

If he had gone off to give money away to a fuzzy cause, he wouldn’t have made his unique contribution. When you read that article, reflect on your own unique contribution. Not what others say you should do—what you are meant to do. Building a great private business is an enormous contribution to the world. You employ people, pay suppliers, make a difference in clients' lives and your community. It's a high mission.

Now analyze yourself. You bring you to your business. So who are you bringing? Use a lifeline to mark where you are today—age 40, for example—and track your relationship, emotional, and business life across time. Reflect on patterns and what shaped you. Then ask, who do you need to be to win moving forward?

This isn’t about who others say you should be. It’s about who you are, deep down, and how to bring that to the world through your business. Once you know who you are at 40, ask who you'll be at 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. People are drawn to a man with a plan, not a boy with a toy. The same applies to women. People follow those going somewhere with purpose.

I personally keep 25-year plans: 48 to 50, 50 to 75, 75 to 100. That mental scaffolding helps drive action. Great businesses come from the hearts, minds, and souls of founders who bleed to build them. It starts inside.

We live in a world of Instagram click-click, like-like, fake-fake. Not everything that shimmers is gold. Sometimes it's just a turd with glitter. Don't be that. Be deep. Be substantial. Answer this: What do you live for? I call this a power question.

Most people are what Jim Rohn called "wandering generalities." He urged us to be "meaningful specifics." Know why you do what you do. Why are you called to it? What's your unique gift?

If you can't answer, start with this: "To help other people." That’s the source of meaning. Then work out how you help and how to make it commercially sustainable.

Write your goals. Write your partner's goals. Start with survival: safety, psychological stability, giving. Use Maslow's hierarchy. Make sure you can live, eat, and keep learning—because learning is a survival skill.

You need goals. Without them, you can’t go anywhere or attract others to help. People want to work with people who have energy and purpose.

So, work on yourself first. Give yourself a wellbeing score out of 10. Look at your nutrition, exercise, finances, family, work, play, health, spirituality, and purpose. Growing people build growing businesses. Small people build small ones.

Be the best version of you—not just in business, but in every part of life. There is no trick. No tip. No shortcut. Just this: mission, values, behaviors, and vision. Start with the person.

Let’s talk careers and asset registers. Track your qualifications, courses, seminars, programs. Record the date, original cost, and current value. Most learning depreciates in 3 years. Stay current. Stay learning.

Many people’s learning registers are blank. Don’t let yours be. Read books. Real books. Use a pen, a ruler. Take notes. Summarize. Memorize. Learn.

Books changed my life. They can change yours. Read about leadership, sales, management, entrepreneurship, innovation, and more. Learn deeply. Not shallowly.

Travel. Explore. Even if it’s just via YouTube. Start with ideas. They lead to actions. Actions become habits. Habits shape destiny. Engage with the world mentally first. Then go physically.

Why do you exist? What is your mission? What are your core values? What behaviours are acceptable or unacceptable? What's your vision?

Start here. Start now. It's hard work, but it pays off. As Henry Ford said, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it."

Make the investment. It compounds in every way—for you, your family, your team, and everyone you touch.