Save Yourself—Then Save the Company

After a devastating customer experience, I regrouped and analyzed everything about my business-and then took my company back.

- ANESE CAVANAUGH

Entrepreneurs turn down work all the time. But I didn't fully understand why until 2009, seven years after I started my Northern California-based private coaching and consulting practice.

I had an executive client at the time, responsible for leading a very large global consulting firm, who wanted to shortcut his growth-and I let him. At Active Choices, we lead a body of work called Intentional Energetic Presence, which is largely about cultivating solid leadership skills and cultural health through true self-care-a regimen that has nothing to do with exercising or getting a monthly massage. Among other things, it's about deep self-reflection; being clear about and true to your values; taking time off to think; being flexible while honoring boundaries; and being intentional about what you want to create.

All of this inner work is hard, so it's not surprising some people resist it. They often just want the skills, especially those who need to up their inner game the most. In this executive's case, all of my senses were crying out: Don't do it. Don't let the client slide. But I overrode my intuition, and agreed to do it "his way."