What's (actually) working?

In partnership with

Will here, let’s rumble….

Years ago, I inherited a mess.

A company I'd just taken over was bleeding cash, morale was shot, and everyone had a different theory about what was broken.

The board wanted answers. The team wanted direction. And I was drowning in problems I didn't create.

My first instinct was to fix everything.

All at once. I made lists. I held meetings. I created task forces.

Three weeks in, nothing had improved, and I wasn't sleeping.

Then my mentor at the time asked me a question that stopped me cold:

"What's actually working?"

I didn't have an answer.

I'd spent three weeks cataloging everything that was broken.

I couldn't name a single thing that was working. Not one.

He told me to stop. Go find out. Come back when I had an answer.

So I did.

Turns out, plenty was working.

A small team in Europe was quietly crushing their numbers. One product line was profitable—we just weren't paying attention to it.

A few key customer relationships were rock solid, even as everything else burned.

The turnaround began not by fixing what was broken, but by safeguarding what was already working and then expanding on it.

The company not only survived, but thrived—and today is a global leader in the market.

That one learning is something I've carried for 40+ years, and the bottom line is you can't build on what you don't see.

I still ask myself this question every day.

It's actually the first of five. Same five questions, in the same order, every morning.

It's how I think.

But "What's working?" always comes first.

Not because it's the easiest—because it's the one we skip.

Most business owners I talk to can list their problems in seconds.

Ask them what's working?

They stutter. It's not that nothing's working—it's that they've stopped noticing.

And here's the thing: the stuff that's working is usually where your leverage lives.

The problems are just noise competing for attention.

How AI changes the game….

I've started feeding my wins into my AI toolbox.

Not my problems—my wins.

Small ones. Big ones. Patterns I'm noticing. Things that went better than expected.

What comes back often surprises me—connections and leverage I wasn't seeing.

"Have you noticed these three wins all have the same customer type?"

That kind of thing.

Most people use AI to troubleshoot. I use it to amplify.

Copy-paste this into your AI of choice (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.):

Act as a strategic business analyst and coach.

Here are 3–5 things currently working in my business:
[PASTE YOUR LIST HERE]

Please analyze this list and identify:

- Any clear patterns or themes connecting these wins

- The shared principles, strategies, or mindsets behind their success

- Areas of untapped leverage based on what's already working

- Specific suggestions to double down on or expand these strengths for even greater results

Ask me any questions you have.

For 4+ decades, I've started, built, sold, and shuttered companies, and made every mistake you can think of.

The one thing I know for sure: the answer is usually already in front of you.

You're just too busy fixing problems to see it.

So here's my question for you:

What's working in your business right now?

Not the problems. Not the to-do list.

What's actually generating momentum—even if it feels small?

Hit reply. I read everyone.

— Will

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