Leadership Burnout: The Cost of Always Saying Yes as a Plumber
After almost fifty years in business and a lifetime in plumbing, I thought I’d mastered stress, endurance, and the art of saying “yes.” I believed experience made me immune to burnout. Little did I know, the actual cost of leadership was yet to be revealed.
But the truth is, no one’s immune. Over the past eight months, my body has quietly taught me that lesson.
👂 The hearing dips.
❤️ The heart feels heavier.
⚡ The energy fades.
🌙 The nights stop being restful.
Waking up two, three, or even five times a night became normal. I told myself it was just age or bad sleep habits. But it wasn’t. It was stress. Not the kind you create, but the kind you absorb from everyone else.
And it all came to a head last week when I turned 70… then this week in a hospital bed.
🛏️ Lying in a hospital bed, dying of boredom, at least gives you time to think.
And I’m very good at thinking. Maybe too good. Perhaps I should have spent more time acting.
But there are positives in everything: the quiet time allowed me to catch up on reading, which I’d been meaning to do, and reflect on what matters in business and life.
🏥 The Wake-Up Call
It wasn’t poor health that put me there. It was accumulated stress.
Months of carrying other people’s problems, trying to protect myself from pressure, and convincing myself I could handle it.
This week, while at Gold Coast Private Hospital, I finally checked my emails. I found a message from a long-time client who was angry that I hadn’t returned their call about their hot water issue.
They were frustrated and rightly so. But lying there, I realised the uncomfortable truth:
❌ I’d built a business where some clients only wanted me.
❌ That’s not leadership.
❌ That’s dependency disguised as dedication.
⚖️ The Price of Leadership
Leadership and ownership look powerful from the outside, but every step forward costs something.
💰 Money – You pay your people before you pay yourself.
⏰ Time – Long hours, early mornings, and sleepless nights.
💪 Comfort – The higher you climb, the heavier the load.
🧠 Control – You lose the right to do everything your way.
💬 Pride – You admit mistakes, ask for help, and swallow your ego.
But what nobody tells you is that stress compounds silently. It hides in your pulse, your sleep, and your patience, until one day, your body forces you to stop.
🚫 "Yes" - The Most Expensive Word in Business
For decades, my philosophy in business was simple:
💬 Say yes to everything, and we’ll figure out how to make it work later.
It felt like the right mindset as it was ambitious, client-focused, and confident. I believed every problem had a solution if we just worked hard enough to find it. And to be fair, that attitude built our reputation for reliability and creativity.
But in hindsight, it was a bad philosophy. That constant “yes” came with hidden costs — not just to the business, but to my health, my energy, and my peace of mind.
It used to drive Michele crazy. She was often the voice of reason, reminding me that just because you can say yes doesn’t mean you should. That balance, that second voice, is something I now realise I miss deeply in my decision-making.
✔️ “Yes” to last-minute jobs.
✔️ “Yes” to after-hours calls without premium pricing.
✔️ “Yes” to bending schedules for “just one more” client.
✔️ “Yes” to covering after-hours schedules for “he’s a good bloke and dedicated” employee.
✔️ “Yes” to covering Christmas and New Year so everyone else can spend time with their family.
It looked like dedication. It felt like pride. It felt like being responsible. But it was actually erosion of time, profit, and health.
Every “yes” drained something; those tiny withdrawals add up over time.
I’ve often said that learning to say no takes a long time in business. But once you master it, it empowers you.
In hindsight, I can see it clearly now:
💬 I said yes far too often when I should have said no.
The truth?
💬 “Yes” is the most expensive word in business.
It doesn’t just cost money.
It costs focus, balance, and sleep.
🧗♂️ The Mountaintop Principle
Nobody stands on a mountaintop without leaving the valley.
You sacrifice comfort, ease, and sometimes your peace to climb higher.
But I’d forgotten you can’t climb if you carry everyone else’s gear.
Leadership and ownership aren’t about absorbing your team’s stress or rescuing every client crisis.
It’s about building others up so they can carry their own weight.
Authentic leadership means creating systems that stand when you sit down.
🧱 Boundaries Build Better Businesses
✅ Boundaries are not a sign of caring less, but a strategy to care longer and more effectively.
❌ A business without boundaries burns through its best people.
❌ A leader without boundaries burns through their own health.
Boundaries protect your:
🧩 Standards — Consistency over chaos.
💼 Systems — Predictability over panic.
💙 Sanity — Sustainability over burnout.
Service excellence isn’t about being constantly available.
It’s about being consistently reliable.
👂 The Leadership Skill Nobody Teaches: Listening
We were born with one mouth and two ears for a reason. So use them in proportion.
Leadership isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about being the most aware.
👥 Listen to your clients – not just their words, but what they really need.
👷 Listen to your team. If you stop long enough, they’ll tell you what’s breaking.
❤️ Listen to your body – it whispers long before it screams.
Those sleepless nights, I shrugged off as “normal”? They weren’t. They were warning signals.
My mind was working overtime because my boundaries weren’t.
Leadership starts with listening to others, systems, and yourself.
😴 What Stress and Sleepless Nights HaveTaught Me
Stress doesn’t shout; it seeps.
It creeps into your hearing, heart rate, sleep, and spirit.
You think you’re managing it.
You tell yourself you’re fine; this is what leadership looks like.
Until one night, you realise you’ve been awake for hours, replaying conversations that shouldn’t even be your burden.
And the cruel truth?
Most of that stress isn’t even yours.
But as leaders, we take it anyway – because we care.
That’s what good leaders do.
Until they learn to stop and say no.
🧭 Remember
There are a few things worth remembering – lessons that have taken me a lifetime to learn, often the hard way.
👨🔧 Every person is not your client.
Some people will never fit your philosophy or respect the boundaries of how you operate. Their demands can’t be met because they ignore that we work under Acts of Parliament as plumbers, not personal preference. They ignore the fact that the Fair Work Act governs us.
Plumbing isn’t guesswork; it’s governed by law.
👥 Every potential employee isn’t a good fit.
Some will look great at first glance, full of confidence and good stories. But not all share your standards or your willingness to listen.
I used to tell Gareth when he hired someone new and said how great they were, “Tell me that in six months.”
That’s reality. Some fit; some don’t.
💼 Not every business opportunity is worth chasing.
No matter how attractive it looks, it will eventually hurt you if it doesn’t align with your philosophy or how you treat people.
I learned early that your employees are your number one asset. Treat them with respect – the same way you expect to be treated, and never compromise that for a quick win.
🤝 Not every partnership is built on integrity.
Some alignments with other businesses look perfect on paper but crumble when motives surface. Don’t assume everyone is like you.
The days of handshake deals and a man’s word being his bond are fading fast. Too many people in business operate on the philosophy of “how can I get the upper hand?”
I’ve always believed in giving people the benefit of the doubt – I’ll believe you until you give me a reason not to.
But that philosophy has landed me in trouble more than once.
So remember this:
💙 Please treat everyone respectfully, but never assume they think like you.
💙 Experience will eventually prove who deserves your trust.
💡 The Hard Truth About Growth
You don’t get to keep everything and grow.
You can’t build freedom without surrendering control.
You can’t gain peace without letting go of perfection.
You can’t climb higher without dropping the unnecessary weight.
Leadership demands sacrifice, but it shouldn’t require your health. Remember, to grow your business, you must prioritise balance and self-care. Sacrifice control and trust your people. Sacrifice comfort and hold accountability. Sacrifice pride and ask for help. But never sacrifice your health.
If you want your business to grow:
⚙️ Sacrifice control and trust your people.
🔥 Sacrifice comfort and hold accountability.
🎯 Sacrifice pride and ask for help.
No one builds a lasting business by clinging to what’s easy.
The leaders who refuse to sacrifice stay stuck.
The ones who embrace it go up, learning and growing with each step.
As I was reminded in a hospital bed the day after celebrating my 70th birthday:
“There is no success without sacrifice. You have to give up to go up.”
❤️ Still Passionate After All These Years
In November 2026, I can celebrate five decades, and I still love what I do. I love the craftsmanship, the challenge, and the satisfaction of solving real problems for real people. This enduring passion is what keeps me going, even after facing burnout.
But loving what you do doesn’t mean doing it until you drop.
It means building it so you can keep doing it well, wisely, and with joy.
Because when leadership stops serving your health, it stops serving your business.
And when you finally stop saying “yes” to everything, you create space for what truly matters – clarity, consistency, and a legacy that lasts through every apprentice you trained, every former employee who still calls for advice and every client that became a friend.
