It turns out the people were always the interesting part

I spent 26 years building and running a technology services company. At least that’s what it said on the sign. The truth is, I was never all that fascinated by the technology itself. I was fascinated by the people. Why they made the decisions they made. What they worried about. What they weren’t saying. How trust got built, how problems got solved, and how the right question at the right moment could change the direction of a conversation.

Looking back, that was probably the real work all along. I just happened to be doing it while also worrying about servers, cybersecurity, employees, payroll, and whatever else decided to break that day.

Then I sold the company.

That was a good thing. It was also a strange thing. For years, I had been helping other people think through change, uncertainty, and big decisions. Suddenly, I had one of my own. I had time. I had options. I had the freedom to do something different. However, having lots of options did not automatically make it easier to know what I wanted.

I started figuring it out, not with one big epiphany and definitely not in a straight line. I tried some things, abandoned some things, doubled back a few times, and learned a lot about what fit, often by slamming into something that didn’t. Somewhere in there, coaching, podcasting, and some of the other work I was doing started to look less like a bunch of unrelated projects and more like different ways of doing what I had always enjoyed most: listening, asking questions, making connections, and helping people see what might come next.

These days, most of my time goes into coaching and podcasting. The work looks different than it did when I owned my technology company, but the common thread really hasn’t changed much. I’m still interested in how people make decisions, how they get unstuck, and what can happen when somebody has enough time and space to think out loud without being rushed toward an answer.

A little context, if you’re curious

Over the years, I built and sold a successful business and worked with clients who stayed with us for an average of more than 19 years. More recently, I’ve continued my own education through Jack Canfield’s Success Principles, Seth Godin’s altMBA, Keith Ferrazzi’s Beyond Connection, Martha Beck’s Wayfinder Life Coach Training, and the Positive Intelligence coaching program.

Since people occasionally ask, Monjoba is not a word