There are several moments in the New Testament where Jesus asks people this simple, profound question: "What do you want?" "Do you want me to heal you?" "Who do you say I am?"

I've been thinking about these questions a lot lately because as a business leader, you have to constantly answer this for yourself. Do you want this route or that route? Where will you spend your time? What will you prioritize?

These questions surface when I'm making decisions about clients, campaigns, strategies, how to use my team's time, my own time, my family's time—how to approach what people call work-life balance or integration or whatever term you prefer.

Yesterday I talked with a young tech entrepreneur just getting out of school, thinking about starting a business. My advice to him was straightforward: the business stuff, the finance stuff, the tech stuff—most of that is pretty clear. Definitely stay sharp on AI developments, business fundamentals, financial literacy.

But here's the thing: none of that is the hard part.

Make more money than you spend. Do it sustainably without burning out. That's the basic formula. It's not easy, but it's straightforward.

What's actually hard is maintaining personal clarity amid business complexity. Things can get out of hand so fast. There's so much competing for your attention, so many directions you could go, so many things that seem urgent.

That's why I keep coming back to Jesus's question: What do you want?

This connects directly to marketing because marketing sits at the front edge of your business. Sales and marketing face the market first. Everything that follows—operations, finance, delivery—depends on the clarity marketing provides.

But marketing can only be clear when leadership is clear. Your messaging and positioning flow from your business clarity. Your campaigns reflect your strategic focus. Your content reveals what you actually value.

When business leaders can't answer "What do you want?"—when they haven't defined their top goal for the next three months, six months, twelve months, three years—their marketing becomes muddled. The sales process becomes confused. Operations lacks direction.

The question is deceptively simple but profoundly powerful: What do you want?

Not what you think you should want. Not what your investors want. Not what seems impressive on LinkedIn. What do you actually want from this business?

I find it remarkable that this question appears in the Bible, asked by Jesus to people seeking healing, direction, transformation. It's the same question entrepreneurs need to answer today.

Clarity precedes everything else. Strategy, execution, growth—they all flow from knowing what you want.

So I'll ask you: What do you want from your business over the next 12 months?