Own the Franchise of Your Life

What if you treated your life like a sports franchise? Not just drifting through roles and responsibilities, but deliberately owning, managing, coaching, and playing the game of your goals and purpose.

Too often, we hand over parts of ourselves to others—letting external expectations dictate the plays we run. But the truth is simple: the franchise of your life belongs to you. No one else. And when you embrace that reality, every role becomes clearer.

The Franchise Owner: Defining Legacy

The owner sets the vision. Think about it—no franchise survives without a clear identity and long-term purpose.

Ask yourself:

• What is the brand of me?

• What values do I want to be known for?

• What kind of legacy do I want to leave?

But here’s the key: you must carve out time to think like an owner. If you never pause to set direction, your franchise gets pulled off course by outside forces. Vision requires white space on your calendar.

The General Manager: Building the Roster

Every successful franchise has a GM who makes the hard personnel calls. In your life, that’s you.

Your roster includes:

• Mentors, coaches, and advisors who sharpen you.

• Friends who uplift rather than drain.

• Collaborators who align with your mission.

The GM doesn’t just fill seats. The GM protects culture, evaluates fit, and makes cuts when necessary. But here’s the reality: if you never dedicate time to evaluate your roster, people who don’t belong on your team will stay too long. Relationships drift by default; they improve only by design.

The Coach: Designing the System

The coach doesn’t play the game, but without a coach, talent goes wasted. This role is about strategy, discipline, and daily execution.

The questions here are:

• What’s my game plan for growth?

• How do I review the tape of past mistakes and adjust?

• Am I practicing the fundamentals consistently?

But the coach’s job takes time, too. Reflection, planning, and course-correcting don’t happen in five rushed minutes. You need real space in your week to assess and refine your approach. Otherwise, you’re always reacting instead of leading.

The Player: Executing—and Sustaining—the Game

At the end of the day, the lights come on, the crowd gathers, and the game begins. As the player, you can’t sit in the stands. You step onto the court. You take the shots. You run the plays.

But here’s the truth: if you don’t take care of the player, the franchise crumbles.

• Health is the foundation. No sleep, no energy.

• Habits are the mechanics. What you do daily becomes how you perform under pressure.

• Wellbeing is the stamina. Burnout sidelines more franchises than bad strategy ever will.

And just like the other roles, the player needs time. Time for rest. Time for training. Time for recovery. You can’t play every game at full speed without breaking down.

The Real Challenge: Time Allocation

Success in life isn’t about knowing the roles. It’s about giving each role enough space to succeed.

• Owners need vision time.

• GMs need relationship time.

• Coaches need strategy time.

• Players need health and execution time.

Neglect any one of these, and your franchise tilts off balance.

Where This Leaves You

You are all four:

• The owner of your destiny.

• The GM of your relationships.

• The coach of your discipline.

• The player of your daily actions.

And the scoreboard of your life reflects how well you’ve managed your time across all four roles.

So ask yourself today: am I allocating enough time to lead my franchise to a championship—or am I leaving key roles on the bench?

What if you could finally answer the question Jim Collins left open in Good to Great?

Collins’ groundbreaking research revealed that companies who leap from mediocrity to sustained greatness start not with strategy, but with people. His principle—First Who, Then What—reshaped leadership thinking for a generation.

But one question has lingered for over twenty years: How do you know who the “right people” really are?

Hire the Right W.H.O.M. delivers the missing link. Built on decades of leadership experience and organizational research, Omar L. Harris introduces a proven framework for identifying, hiring, and developing high-performance talent based on character, not just credentials.

The W.H.O.M. model defines the essential attributes of exceptional contributors:

• Work-Ethic — reliability, dedication, and discipline

• Heart — values, motivators, and courage

• Optimism — resilience, adaptability, and positivity

• Maturity — self-awareness, judgment, and diplomacy

With practical tools, assessments, and strategies, you’ll learn how to:

• Transform hiring from résumé-driven guesswork into character-based decision-making

• Build teams equipped to thrive in uncertainty and change

• Develop leaders who embody the very traits Collins’ research proved were decisive

Whether you’re an executive, entrepreneur, or manager determined to build a culture of greatness, Hire the Right W.H.O.M. shows you how to move from principle to practice.

If Good to Great gave us the compass, W.H.O.M. provides the map. Get the book and start elevating team and organizational culture today!