You Can Lead a Horse to Water…

byPaulChetwyn

2.2K followers

3 days ago

But You Can’t Make It Drink: The Hard Truth About Business and People

Every entrepreneur learns this lesson the hard way.

You can explain.
You can present the opportunity.
You can train, support, encourage, invest, and follow up…

And still — people won’t act.

Business isn’t just about strategy.
It’s about human choice.

You can open the door.
You can’t force someone to walk through it.

Understanding this principle is the difference between burnout… and leadership maturity.

🧠 What This Saying Really Means in Business

It means:

You are responsible for opportunity.
Others are responsible for action.

Many business owners carry guilt, frustration, and exhaustion because they try to own outcomes that were never fully in their control.

🏢 How This Shows Up in Every Area of Business

👥 Clients

You can:

✔ Provide expert advice
✔ Create a plan
✔ Offer tools
✔ Give step-by-step guidance

But clients must:

✖ Follow through
✖ Do the work
✖ Stay consistent

Pro: You learn not to overextend yourself.
Con: Watching potential go unused can be frustrating.

💰 Investors

You can present:

• data
• projections
• strategy
• risk mitigation

But investors still decide emotionally, politically, or based on timing.

Pro: Forces you to refine communication.
Con: Rejection doesn’t always mean your idea is bad.

🤝 Business Partners

You can bring vision, drive, and structure.
But you can’t force:

• equal commitment
• shared urgency
• aligned priorities

Partnerships fail when one person tries to carry two people’s responsibility.

👨‍💼 Employees / Staff

You can:

• train
• motivate
• incentivize
• create culture

But you can’t install ambition into someone.

Pro: You learn to hire for attitude, not just skill.
Con: Leaders burn out trying to “save” unmotivated staff.

The contrast between Opportunity and Engagement

📈 Salespeople

You can give:

• scripts
• leads
• systems
• mentoring

But performance ultimately depends on:

• discipline
• mindset
• emotional resilience

The best systems still fail with the wrong mindset.

🛍 Customers

You can market well, educate well, follow up well…

But customers still:

• delay decisions
• doubt themselves
• fear change
• procrastinate

Sometimes the barrier isn’t price — it’s internal resistance.

🧍 Personal Life Lesson Behind It

This principle doesn’t start in business.

It shows up in:

• relationships
• family advice
• friendships
• parenting

You can love people, guide people, warn people…
But growth is always voluntary.

Trying to control others leads to:

❌ Stress
❌ Resentment
❌ Emotional exhaustion

🔄 After the Sale: The Lesson Continues

Even after customers buy:

You can provide:

• onboarding
• instructions
• support

But you can’t force them to:

• use the product
• stay consistent
• apply the knowledge

Results come from application, not access.

⚖️ Pros and Cons of Accepting This Truth

Pros Cons

Reduces emotional burnout Feels less “in control”

Improves leadership boundaries Must accept others’ failures

Builds better hiring & filtering Hard to watch wasted potential

Encourages personal responsibility culture Can feel impersonal if misused

The key is balance:
Support fully. Detach emotionally from what you can’t control.

🧭 Leadership Growth Moment

Mature leaders understand:

“I provide the water.
I can’t drink it for them.”

That shift changes:

• your stress levels
• your hiring processes
• your sales expectations
• your partnerships
• your emotional health

💭 Consider This

One of the hardest parts of growth is accepting that not everyone will grow with you.

Some people want opportunity.
Others only like the idea of it.

Your role isn’t to drag people forward.

Your role is to:

✔ Show the path
✔ Provide the tools
✔ Encourage the journey

And then let choice do its work.

Because in business — and in life —
freedom to choose includes freedom not to change.