Business strategy and personal motivation: how to find your niche and stop doubting yourself
I live a very intense entrepreneurial life. I have more than thirty years of business experience behind me, and it would seem that doubts should have been left far behind. Yet, like many entrepreneurs, I often feel dissatisfied — with the pace of growth, with the scale of the business.
Adding to this is the pressure of the outside world, which lately I can almost physically feel. Social media, business blogs, endless lectures, and examples of “successful success” merge into one constant message: you must continuously grow, scale, attract investment, build large teams, and prepare for an exit.
All of this flows in a constant stream and quietly settles in the mind: as if somewhere you didn’t do enough, chose the wrong path, or lacked ambition. It’s not that I feel like a failure — but doubt has crept in.
If such thoughts come to me, given my experience, then I can only imagine how turbulent it must feel for those in their early thirties. Recently, I spoke to an audience of young entrepreneurs, sharing insights that came to me as a mix of long-term learning, deep reflection, and years of business practice.
The essence is simple: you can significantly simplify your life by taking two important steps.
First, choose one of the three existing business development strategies and follow it without looking around or comparing yourself to others.
Second, define your core driving energy (money, power, or fame) that motivates you to build a business — and act according to your inner calling, not against it.
Let’s go deeper.
LIFEHOLDING, EXIT OR BECOME AN EMPIRE
At the Stockholm School of Economics, during the DYB program, we studied three core business development strategies.
- The first — Lifeholding — views business as a source of income to support a certain lifestyle for its owner.
- The second — Exit — assumes the company should be built for sale from day one: grow it, make it attractive to investors, and sell it.
- The third — Growth / Scale (Become an Empire) — is about maximum scaling, constant expansion, and growth as the main driving force.
These three strategies cannot coexist within one business, as they are fundamentally different approaches.
For example, there are chain restaurants — thousands of them: convenient, fast, predictable. But when you want to celebrate a special day or go on a date, you usually choose not a chain, but a unique, one-of-a-kind restaurant. There is a small bakery on the corner that makes desserts you can’t find anywhere else. And there are global pastry chains. These are different business logics.
Famous watch brands usually do not scale — they preserve craftsmanship and uniqueness: one factory, a limited number of models, no aggressive expansion. At the same time, they have a century-long reputation and waiting lists for years. They don’t build empires, yet they are known worldwide. Each of these strategies has достойні examples.
Why is it important to choose your strategy? Because it helps you stay focused. Entrepreneurs are wired to compare themselves with others.
But there is a nuance: you cannot compare, metaphorically, brown with square.
If you follow a Lifeholding strategy, it is destructive to compare yourself with a company deliberately built for sale. That’s obvious — but that’s not all.
So how should an owner choose the strategy that will make them feel most comfortable and… happy? It all depends on what truly drives them in business.
MOTIVATIONAL ENERGIES: MONEY, POWER, FAME
This is where the energies that define true entrepreneurial motivation come into play. There are three of them: the energy of money, the energy of power, and the energy of fame (recognition).
Every entrepreneur has all three, but only one is dominant. It determines what brings the greatest satisfaction.
Some people are driven by power. For them, position matters. Money and fame come almost naturally, because power gives access to them — but they are not the main goal.
For others, money comes first. They build systems to continuously earn, create financial flows, and increase capital. These are process-driven people.
For those driven by fame, it is important to create something that attracts attention, inspires admiration, and surprises others. It must have a “wow effect” and meaning for people.
Just like choosing a clear strategy, understanding and accepting your true motivation helps you stay focused and avoid scattering your energy on doubts and comparisons. If you are about money — make money, stay in the process — that’s your path. If it’s fame, then everything you do purely for money will turn to dust. That’s exactly my case.
My driving energy is fame and recognition. I don’t need all the money in the world, and power does not interest me.
But I enjoy it when people visit my factory and are genuinely amazed by what they see.
I personally give tours and always emphasize that working in production is prestigious — especially when the products made there are exported to more than 50 countries worldwide.
When I was just starting to build my factory, people asked why I wouldn’t simply place machines in a garage or hangar — after all, the surroundings don’t affect production or contracts. If my driving energy had been money, I might have done exactly that.
But the energy of fame dictates different rules and approaches — the visitors’ amazement at the environment where machines and workers operate gives me the emotional uplift and motivation I seek.
The same logic applies to my restaurant business. Sushi Studio has been around for eighteen years. It is known among residents of Chernihiv and visitors to the city. I never wanted to build a chain. That requires a different mindset, a different team, and a completely different level of pressure. What matters to me is that this restaurant is unique, one of a kind, with character.
ADJUSTING WITHIN THE FLOW
Now that I understand these things, life has become much easier. All my life I lacked a mentor who would say: follow your path, don’t look around, you’re doing just fine. That’s why now I willingly share what I’ve learned — hoping it will make someone else’s path easier and quiet the unnecessary noise.
Moreover, when a person understands and accepts their individuality, their business strategy, and what truly drives them, they gain the ability to loosen control a little, reduce tension, and move within their own flow.
It reminds me of riding a motorcycle or even sledding downhill: full immersion in the process and gentle adjustments within the flow make the movement feel alive, joyful… and truly happy.
