Welcome to the 68th edition of #theFutureReadyAdvisor Newsletter!
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The universe’s most reliable law isn’t gravity—it’s entropy. And it’s quietly dismantling everything you’ve built.
A successful wealth management firm I consulted with had achieved everything they thought they wanted: $2 billion in assets under management, a stellar reputation, and consistent profitability. Yet when I met with the leadership team, the managing partner confessed something that surprised me: “We’re busier than ever, but it feels like we’re falling behind. Our best clients seem more demanding, our team is burning out, and competitors are gaining ground. How can we be so successful and yet feel so… fragile?”
This firm had discovered what physicists call the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and what I call the Maintenance Trap: without continuous energy input, all systems—including organizations and relationships—naturally move toward disorder. Success isn’t a destination you reach and then coast from. It’s a dynamic state that requires constant maintenance, just like entropy requires constant energy to be reversed.
The Day Our Best Client Almost Walked Away
A decade or so ago, at one of the firms I was leading, we had a flagship client, a tech entrepreneur who represented 15% of our revenue, who had been with us for eight years without a single complaint. The relationship seemed bulletproof.
Then, during what should have been a routine quarterly review, everything changed. The client sat quietly through the portfolio update, then said something that stopped the room cold: “I’ve been thinking about making some changes. Maybe it’s time to explore other options.”
His advisor was stunned. “Did we do something wrong? Are you unhappy with the performance?”
“No,” the client replied. “The performance is fine. But I don’t feel like I matter here anymore. Our meetings feel routine, like you’re going through the motions. When was the last time you asked about my business, my family, or what keeps me up at night? When was the last time you brought me an idea I hadn’t already heard?”
That conversation revealed a crucial truth I hadn’t seen coming: relationship entropy had been quietly eating away at what appeared to be our strongest client connection. Without regular investment of genuine attention, curiosity, and value creation, even the best relationships naturally drift toward indifference.
We managed to salvage the relationship, but it required a complete overhaul of how we approached client engagement. More importantly, it taught our entire team that maintenance isn’t just about avoiding problems; it’s about continuously deepening value and connection.
The “Non-Growth” Company That Was Actually Shrinking
Earlier this year, I encountered entropy’s deceptive nature again while consulting for a specialty clothing business exploring an acquisition. We were evaluating a potential target company when the owner made a statement that made both my client and me blink: “We’re not a growth company. We don’t actively seek new clients. We just serve our existing customer base well.”
The owner seemed proud of this positioning: stable, established, focused. But as I dug deeper into their numbers, a troubling pattern emerged. While they weren’t losing clients dramatically, their revenue per client had been steadily declining. Long-standing customers were ordering less frequently, buying smaller quantities, and some were quietly drifting to competitors.
“You think you’re maintaining,” I told the target company owner, “but you’re actually shrinking. Your existing clients aren’t buying what they used to, and natural attrition is eating away at your base. Every company has to be a growth company; if only to replace what you lose from inevitable decay.”
The owner was genuinely surprised. In his mind, keeping the same clients meant keeping the same business. But entropy doesn’t respect intentions. Client needs evolve, purchasing patterns change, relationships cool without attention, and competitors chip away at loyalty. What looks like stability is often disguised decline.
This revelation changed how my client viewed the acquisition; and how I think about business sustainability. Standing still isn’t an option when the ground beneath you is constantly shifting.
Understanding Organizational Entropy
Entropy, in scientific terms, is the measure of disorder in a system. Left to themselves, all systems move from order to chaos: hot coffee gets cold, organized desks become cluttered, and successful companies lose their edge. This isn’t a failure of leadership; it’s a fundamental law of nature.
In organizational terms, entropy manifests in predictable ways.
Communication Clarity Decays: What starts as crystal-clear vision and strategy gradually becomes muddled through retelling, assumption, and interpretation. Research from MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that even among executives and middle managers responsible for making strategy happen, only 28% could correctly identify three of their company’s top strategic priorities; and alignment drops even further at lower organizational levels.
Relationships Require Renewal: Professional relationships naturally drift toward transactional exchanges unless they are intentionally nurtured. Advisor-client connections built on mutual respect and shared purpose can flatten into routine check-ins or basic portfolio updates without ongoing, personal investment. Likewise, once-collaborative team dynamics are susceptible to becoming siloed and focused only on efficiency unless organizations actively reinforce trust, openness, and joint problem-solving.
Culture Erosion Happens Gradually Organizational culture doesn’t collapse overnight; it erodes gradually as standards slip, communication patterns change, and shared values become assumptions rather than active practices. Harvard Business School research indicates that culture degradation is one of the primary predictors of long-term organizational decline.
Competitive Advantage Atrophies What makes you special today becomes tomorrow’s table stakes. The technology platform that differentiates you becomes commoditized. The service model that sets you apart gets copied. The expertise that commands premium fees becomes widely available.
The trap is believing that once you’ve achieved success, it becomes self-sustaining. It doesn’t. Success requires continuous energy input to maintain; and even more energy to advance.
The Energy Investment Framework
Fighting entropy isn’t about working harder; it’s about directing energy more strategically. Here are four areas where consistent energy investment prevents the maintenance trap.
Relationship Energy: This means moving beyond transactional interactions to genuine value creation. For advisors, it’s the difference between “How’s your portfolio performing?” and “How has your thinking about retirement evolved since we last spoke?” For leaders, it’s the difference between status updates and meaningful development conversations.
One advisor I know blocks two hours quarterly per client specifically for “curiosity conversations”; discussions with no agenda other than understanding how their clients’ lives and priorities are evolving. This isn’t billable time in the traditional sense, but it’s the energy investment that prevents relationship entropy.
Knowledge Energy: In rapidly changing fields, yesterday’s expertise becomes tomorrow’s obsolescence. This requires systematic investment in learning, not just for yourself but for your entire organization.
Microsoft’s transformation under Satya Nadella exemplifies this principle. Rather than defending their existing knowledge base, they institutionalized learning through their “growth mindset” culture. They invested enormous energy in retraining, rethinking, and rebuilding capabilities. The result? A company that was stagnating under the weight of its own success became one of the world’s most innovative organizations.
Systems Energy: Processes and systems that once created efficiency can become bureaucratic barriers without regular examination and refinement. The onboarding process that worked for 50 clients may break down at 200. The team communication structure that worked for 8 people may create chaos at 25.
Cultural Energy: This is perhaps the most critical and most overlooked. Culture isn’t what you write on walls; it’s what you repeatedly reinforce through decisions, conversations, and daily practices. Without deliberate energy investment, even the strongest cultures drift toward mediocrity.
Practical Applications for Leaders and Advisors
For Organizational Leaders:
- Schedule Entropy Audits: Quarterly, ask your team where they see drift, complacency, or degradation. Not as criticism, but as systematic maintenance. What worked six months ago that’s now creating friction?
- Invest in Relationship Renewal: Don’t just manage your team; develop them. Regular one-on-ones aren’t status meetings; they’re energy investments in human potential and connection.
- Create Learning Rhythms: Make knowledge acquisition and skill development non-negotiable, not something that happens “when we have time.” Companies that treat learning as maintenance rather than luxury consistently outperform those that don’t.
For Financial Advisors:
- Relationship Maintenance Protocols: Build systematic touchpoints that go beyond portfolio performance. Track not just account values but relationship depth, client satisfaction, and evolving needs.
- Value Creation Cycles: Regularly introduce new ideas, perspectives, or services. The goal isn’t to sell more products but to demonstrate that your thinking about their situation continues to evolve and deepen.
- Practice Development Energy: Invest in capabilities before you need them. The advisor who waits to invest in better technology, deeper expertise, or stronger processes until they’re losing clients has already lost the entropy battle.
The challenge many leaders face is making sound decisions when they don’t have complete information—which, let’s be honest, is most of the time. Whether you’re running a multinational corporation or making strategic decisions for your advisory practice, you need frameworks that help you move forward despite uncertainty.
📥 Get the free guide: The Uncertainty Advantage—a decision-making framework for leaders navigating change.
The Compound Effect of Maintenance
Here’s what I’ve learned from working with organizations that consistently fight entropy: small, regular energy investments compound dramatically over time. The advisor who spends a hour monthly thinking about their clients’ evolving needs builds relationships that competitors can’t replicate. The leader who invests 15 minutes daily in meaningful team interactions creates a culture that survives any storm.
The opposite is equally true. Small neglects compound into major problems. The client relationship that drifts for six months without genuine attention becomes vulnerable to competitors. The team member who feels disconnected gradually disengages. The process that works “well enough” gradually becomes a bottleneck.
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about recognizing that maintenance isn’t overhead; it’s the core work. The universe’s tendency toward disorder isn’t a bug; it’s a feature that separates truly committed leaders and advisors from those who mistake temporary success for permanent achievement.
In my own experience, I’ve learned that the weeks I skip sharpening my mental tools or tweaking my workout routines aren’t just neutral, they’re moving me backward. Entropy doesn’t wait for convenient timing. The frameworks I rely on for decision-making get rusty without practice, and my physical energy—which directly impacts my thinking clarity—deteriorates without consistent maintenance.
The question isn’t whether entropy will affect your organization or practice—it will. The question is whether you’ll invest the energy to work with this natural law rather than pretend it doesn’t apply to you. The best leaders and advisors I know don’t fight entropy; they respect it and build systematic energy investment into everything they do.
