You can be in the room and still not be present.
I learned that the hard way in high school. I had a calculus class where I showed up every day, sat down, and did the perfect impression of a student: Phone out. Texting. Games. Zoned out.
Then the first test showed up and made the truth obvious: I had not done the work.
The teacher offered corrections. Extra help. A chance to get back in front of it. And I thought, Why would I go to that? A few months later I had this low-grade fear hanging over my head. I knew my grade was not what it should be. I knew the shoe was going to drop. I just did not know when.
Eventually the teacher reached out to my parents. My parents addressed it. I got serious, did the work, and I passed.
Not my best grade ever, but I made it through.
At the end of the class, the teacher told me something I still remember: “I know you did not apply yourself. I know you are smart. You are better than that.”
That is what a good teacher does. She didn’t use the grade a verdict about who I was or what I was capable of. She used it as an invitation to get better.
And that is exactly how you should treat your financials.
Most business owners do not avoid financials because they are lazy.
They avoid them because the numbers feel like judgment.
Profit is down, and it feels like you did something wrong. Cash is tight, and it feels like you failed. Payroll is up, and it feels like you are losing control.
So we do what the 16-year-old version of me did.
We “show up,” but we do not engage.
We glance at the P&L, nod on the call, and let the accountant talk, then move on with the “real work.”
And then months go by, and that low-grade fear starts to build, because you can tell something is off, but you are not sure what, and you do not want to look at it long enough to find out.
If your financials feel like a verdict, you will avoid them.
If your financials feel like a conversation, you will use them.
You do this through building your curiosity.
There's a tendency to think curiosity is something you either have or you don't, that it's a personality trait. But I'd argue… curiosity is not a personality trait, it is a skill you can develop and the only way to continue improving. And in business, it is what turns financials into something usable.
Curiosity is the difference between reading a report and learning from a report.
Between reacting to last month and building a better next month.
If you want to get excellent at running your company, you cannot only look at the scoreboard when you are winning.
You have to look at the film.
Your financials are the film.
THE PROBLEM WITH MOST FINANCIAL REVIEWS
Most financial reviews fail for one simple reason: they have no structure.
So the meeting turns into one of two things. Either it becomes a dump of information with no decision at the end, or it turns into a stress spiral where you start cutting costs without knowing what actually happened.
Curiosity without a process becomes anxiety.
A few good questions turn curiosity into action.
THE CURIOSITY PROTOCOL (THE QUESTIONS THAT MAKE FINANCIALS USEFUL)
Do not try to “understand the financial statements” as a vague goal.
Try to answer a few questions every month, on purpose, and let those answers tell you what to do next.
1) COMPARED TO WHAT?
A single number is not insight. It is just a number sitting there on a page.
So when you see “Revenue is up,” your next question should be, “Compared to what?” Last month, last year, the budget, your capacity, or the last time you were running clean.
This one question keeps you from getting emotional about isolated numbers and forces you to anchor the conversation to a baseline that actually matters.
2) WHAT MOVED?
Do not start with everything. Start with the biggest swings.
Pick the 3 to 5 lines that changed the most, either as a percent or as a dollar amount that matters for your company, and ignore the rest for now.
The goal is not to admire the report. The goal is to find the lines that are trying to get your attention.
3) WHY?
Every surprise has a chain of cause and effect. If profit dropped, ask why, and keep asking until you land on something operational you can actually change.
Was it price, labor, mix, rework, a one-time cost, or timing? Keep peeling layers until the answer stops being “accounting” and starts being “operations.”
That is where the lever is.
4) WHAT IF?
Curiosity is not just backwards-looking. It is how you build readiness before you need it.
Ask a few “what if” questions that would actually hurt your business: What if your biggest customer pays 30 days late? What if sales slow for 60 days? What if you raise price 5 percent on your lowest-margin work?
You are not trying to predict the future perfectly. You are trying to stop being surprised.
5) NOW WHAT? (ONE DECISION)
This is the step most teams skip. You do not need 100 tweaks. You need one decision.
One move you can make this month that changes the next set of numbers: pricing, hiring, collections, a change in process, cutting one expense that does not earn its keep, or fixing one operational leak that is dragging margin.
A good month does not mean you are “good.” A bad month does not mean you are “bad.” The point is: the numbers teach you what to do next.
HOW TO USE THIS TOMORROW
At your next financial review, do this:
Pick one line that looks off.
Run it through the protocol:
- Compared to what?
- What moved?
- Why?
- What if?
- Now what?
Then make one decision (and WRITE IT DOWN).
If you do not capture what you decided, you will have the same conversation next month and call it “staying on top of the numbers.”
You are not staying on top of the numbers… you are just rereading them.
If your financials have felt like a report card lately, you are not alone.
But the answer is not avoidance. It is to treat the numbers the way you treat anything you want to get good at.
Show up, engage, ask better questions, make one small improvement, and repeat.
Let’s go.
