Most business advice and individual professional goals are to build moats. Create dependency. Turn your clients into cash cows.
Thich Nhat Hanh said something that cuts against all of that. In his First Mindfulness Training, he said: don’t get too attached to these teachings. Use them as a tool, then move forward. It’s fascinating when you think about it. It’s like an anti-cult manifesto, by a spiritual leader, about his own doctrine!!
I’ve always applied that logic to my consulting practice. The easy path would’ve been positioning myself as the key enabler, the person who holds the keys to the capital. Instead, I focused on teaching clients how to open the lock themselves. Refining their thinking. Deepening their own understanding of what they were building. I’ve even been offended if I was the first consultant a company reached out to for an important project and were ready to sign on within 2 days of discussing. One a few occasions, I’ve sent them back to take a few days, speak to more consultants first. At the very least, it would give them a better understanding of what they were intending to solve. A few realized they weren’t solving a meaningful challenge yet and shelved it to get back months or a year later. And would get back after a few days, with a deeper perspective and ready to work together. And once a specific challenge is solved, or they are on the right path, we would wrap up and part ways with regard to that challenge. Some raised investments on their own. One got acquired.
And if they encountered a bigger, different challenge down the road, they’d check back with me.
The hidden cost to stickiness that most consulting firms and independent’s don’t realize is that when you keep your clients dependent, you stop growing too. I’ve seen peers charging the same or lesser fees over the years for the same kind of work, than they were a few years earlier.
You become a guardian of a fixed process, rather than someone chasing the next tough problem to solve for your clients.
The best thing you can build for your client is the ability to no longer need you. At least not for the same (level of) challenge.
Are you building a bridge? Or a destination?