Never Wait on the Ball to Get to You

There’s something I’ve always told my kids: Don’t wait on the ball to get to you—go to the ball. That mentality? It doesn’t just apply to sports. It applies to life, to business, and especially to running a cleaning company or any kind of service-based hustle.

A lot of small business owners hit a point where they think, “I’ve got a team now—I don’t need to do the work anymore.” But if you built your business from scratch, you know better. You know leadership starts at the front. And when your cleaning business hits a slow patch or payroll’s tight, that’s not the time to chill. That’s the time to remember what got you here.

You grab that mop. You deep clean that house. You pressure wash that driveway. You save where you can, work where you must, and you never count yourself out of the game. That’s not just a business move—that’s character.

I’m forty now, and at this stage, I’m not just chasing money. I’m chasing meaning. And I’ve realized that every time I’ve pushed through a hard season, it’s because I didn’t wait. I didn’t wait on clients, or employees, or luck. I got up, went to the ball, and made the play.

This is something a lot of entrepreneurs don’t talk about. They’ll tell you how to scale your cleaning business or set up automations—and yeah, that’s part of the game. But in the transition period, when you’re trying to move from in it to over it, you’ve got to be willing to go back to the grind. It’s what built you. And it’ll carry you through the shift.

Closed mouths don’t get fed. And if you’re standing around waiting on the ball? You’re already late.

Never Wait on the Ball