If you spend enough time listening to business conversations today, you start noticing how similar they sound.
People talk about frameworks, strategies, and models. They mention pitch decks, scaling plans, USP, and market fit as if these words are the starting point of every successful business. The language sounds confident. Sometimes it even sounds necessary.
Yet, when you step away from the conversation and look at how real businesses survive, a different picture often appears.
Many businesses that last never speak this language at all.
A few years ago, we needed some electrical work fixed at our office in Quetta. It wasn’t a major project, but it mattered. Instead of searching online or asking multiple people, I asked the watchman of our plaza building if he knew someone reliable.
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He immediately gave me one name.
When the electrician arrived, he didn’t come alone. He came with two team members. While they started working, he stayed with us, asked a few questions, and explained what they were doing. It didn’t feel rushed or transactional. It felt calm and professional.
As the work continued, we started talking. That’s when I learned something interesting. The person I had called was not just a technician. He was the owner of the business. He had a team of around eight people working with him.
I asked him why he personally came for this job instead of just sending his team.
He explained that whenever there is a new client, he prefers to come himself. Not because he doubts his workers. He trusts them. But because he believes real connections are built face to face. Once people are comfortable, his team can handle everything smoothly.
That told me a lot.
After the work was done, everything worked perfectly. No issues. No surprises. When I asked how most clients find him, he smiled and replied the same way you got my contact. People or old clients refer me. When I do my work properly and do not create problems, they recommend me to others. That’s how new work comes.
There was no website. No branding. No marketing language. No startup vocabulary. Yet he had stable work and a growing team.
That experience stayed with me.
It reminded me that even if you don’t know the language of startups or marketing, if you know how to deal with people and your clients properly, business still works.
Understanding people is different from understanding terminology. People don’t remember frameworks. They remember behavior. They remember whether you showed up. Whether you listened. Whether you took responsibility when something didn’t go as planned.
Many profitable businesses quietly organize themselves around this truth.
A shop owner who gives honest advice. A clinic that treats patients with patience. A service provider who explains delays instead of disappearing. None of them call it strategy. They simply act responsibly, again and again.
This is where many businesses get distracted. They borrow ideas designed for venture-backed startups and apply them to businesses that need stability, not speed. They focus on sounding impressive instead of being dependable. They add complexity where clarity would have worked better.
Frameworks are not the problem. They can help when they bring focus. The problem begins when language replaces judgment and attention replaces listening.
Business, at its core, is about building something that lasts through trust, not terminologies or vocabulary.
In many markets, people choose businesses because of how they feel after dealing with them. Not because of how advanced the vocabulary sounds. Trust travels through experience, not through slides.
This is why some businesses grow slowly but last long. They improve quietly. They build teams carefully. They focus on fewer things and do them well.
If you are building a business and feeling overwhelmed by what you think you should be doing, it may help to pause and ask simpler questions.
Do people feel comfortable working with you.
Do they come back.
Do they recommend you to others.
If the answer is yes, you are already doing something right.
Startup language can be learned at any time. Understanding people takes attention, patience, and care, but it pays back for years.
In the end, businesses don’t succeed because they sound smart. They succeed because they make sense to the people they serve.
If this way of thinking resonates, you’ll understand how I approach business conversations and doing business.
