When my husband was recently hospitalized, I found myself staring at our increasingly wild back lawn, feeling overwhelmed by yet another task I couldn’t handle alone. That’s when I remembered the handmade flyer I’d tucked away months earlier—crafted by our 16-year-old neighbour who’d been cutting grass around the neighbourhood for five years.  

Something about that simple flyer had spoken to me. Maybe it was the careful lettering, or maybe it was intuition nudging me to keep his number close.   He’s a good kid—polite, shy, and works quickly. While his results might not match those of a seasoned landscaper, they certainly pass the test. But here’s where things got interesting, and where a life lesson was quietly brewing in my frustration.  

For three weeks during our recent heat wave, I heard absolutely nothing from him. Nothing. Now, I would never expect anyone to work in 40-degree humidity, but I did expect communication. A simple call saying, “I’ll come when it cools down,” or “How about 8 AM when it’s bearable?” Something. Anything.  

When he finally did show up, he seemed genuinely surprised by the conversation I initiated. And that’s when it hit me—the lightbulb moment that connected every single thing I’d been thinking about business, purpose, and impact.

The Real Business We’re In

I found myself explaining to this young man what I wish someone had told me years ago:   When someone hires you, they’re not just buying your service—they’re buying peace of mind, time, and the ability to focus on what matters most to them.  

People hire us for one of three reasons:
They can’t do it themselves.
They won’t do it themselves.
They tried to do it themselves, and it didn’t work out.

But here’s the deeper truth: They hire us because they believe we can give them something precious. Whether that is time, energy, or a sense of peace of mind.  So that they can attend to the more important events in their lives.  

I told him that while it was true my husband couldn’t cut the grass and I wouldn’t, what he was really doing was so much more meaningful. He was giving us the gift of focusing on my husband’s recovery without the stress of an unkempt yard weighing on our minds. He was, in essence, a keeper of positivity in our marriage.  

And keepers of positivity carry responsibilities beyond the physical task.   Communication becomes crucial. Reliability becomes sacred. The “little things” become the big things.   He’s sixteen. I’m not entirely sure he grasped the full weight of what I was saying. But I walked away with something profound.  

The Business Revolution We Need

Most businesses today operate from a transaction mindset: deliver service, collect payment, repeat. Too many of us have forgotten that we’re not just in the business of what we do. We’re really in the business of what our work makes possible for others.   Imagine if we all shifted our perspective from service providers to keepers of positivity in people’s lives.

 -The accountant isn’t just crunching numbers. She’s the keeper of financial peace of mind.
-The babysitter isn’t just watching children. He’s the keeper of parental sanity and date nights.
-The house cleaner isn’t just tidying up. She’s the keeper of weekend freedom.
-The mechanic isn’t just fixing cars. They’re the keeper of reliable transport to essential events.  

Your Turn

How do YOU approach your paid and unpaid work, right now? What if tomorrow, you approached it not as a task to complete, but as a sacred opportunity to be a keeper of positivity in someone’s life?   How would that change your communication? Your attention to detail? Your follow-through?  

I believe the business world desperately needs this shift. We need more people who understand that the real product we’re selling isn’t what we do. It’s what our excellence makes possible for others.  

Because at the end of the day, we’re all just trying to keep the grass cut in each other’s lives, so we can ALL focus on what matters most.