The Importance of Structure in Life and Business: In life and business, the structure you build determines your ability to handle challenges and achieve long-term success. Just like a building, both require intentional planning and strong foundations. 

Here are key questions and principles to consider when developing a solid structure in both areas: 

1. What Loads Are You Planning to Carry? Before starting any venture or making life decisions, it’s crucial to ask: What loads are you planning to carry? In construction, engineers calculate the weight a structure must bear—whether it’s the weight of the roof, walls, or external pressures like wind and weather. Similarly, in life and business, understanding the responsibilities you are taking on is essential to ensure your structure can withstand the weight. 

Are you prepared to handle the challenges that come with leadership, expansion, or personal growth? Understanding the scope of your commitments helps you prepare mentally, emotionally, and financially for what’s ahead. Just as overloading a building can cause it to collapse, taking on too much without proper planning can lead to burnout or failure. 

“An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.”

– King Solomon

2. Are You Planning a New Structure or Expanding an Existing One? The next question to consider is whether you’re building something completely new or expanding an existing foundation. Starting a new business or taking on a significant life change requires careful attention to laying a solid foundation. Skipping this step will result in instability down the road. 

On the other hand, expanding an existing structure—whether it’s scaling your business or growing in your personal life, it requires evaluating the current foundation. Is it strong enough to bear the additional load, or do you need to reinforce it first? Without proper support, the added weight could cause the entire structure to fail. 

3. Reinforcing Foundations After a Structure is Built: Sometimes, after the structure is already in place, we realize the foundation isn’t as strong as it needs to be. This might come after facing unexpected challenges or new growth opportunities. In life, this could mean recognizing that you lack the skills, habits, or relationships necessary to sustain your progress. In business, it might be that your original processes or team need reinforcement to handle new demands. 

Reinforcing foundations after the fact is possible, but it is more challenging and often costly. However, it is always better to make necessary adjustments than to let cracks in the foundation compromise the entire structure. 

4. Shoring Up or Removing: In both life and business, there will be times when you need to shore up existing elements and times when you need to remove them altogether. Some relationships, systems, or structures no longer serve your long-term goals and must be removed, while others simply need reinforcement. 

In life and business, there are times to shore up and times to remove what no longer serves your goals. Carefully discern what is foundational and load-bearing before making changes. 

“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” 

– John The Disciple 

5. Planning for Infrastructure: As your life or business grows, more infrastructure is required. Just like a building expansion needs careful planning for electrical, plumbing, and other systems, growth in life and business requires attention to the systems that support it. 

Do you have the necessary processes, team members, or personal disciplines in place to handle the growth you’re aiming for? Without these systems, even the best-laid plans can fail to function effectively. Planning for the future means preparing not just for what’s visible but for the unseen systems that keep everything running smoothly. 

6. The Cost of Change: Finally, it’s important to remember that changes become more difficult and costly the further along you are. In construction, making adjustments to a structure after it’s already built can be expensive and time-consuming. The same principle applies to life and business. Major changes—like a career shift, business pivot, or relationship adjustment—are harder to implement when you’ve already built so much around your existing structure. 

This is why thoughtful, long-term planning is crucial. The more intentional you are about the structure you’re building today, the fewer costly changes you’ll have to make tomorrow. 

Building a strong structure in life or business starts with a solid foundation. By planning intentionally and reinforcing where needed, you can create something resilient, capable of weathering challenges, and built to last.

Jerry

Business Leadership