“Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition…” 

I can hear Dolly singing it now. Can you? 

“9 to 5” is a country classic, and if you’re of a certain age, you know it well. Though I’m not much of a country music fan, I am most definitely a Dolly fan. 

And now, like millions of others, I’m saddened by her passing. She was 80, but she was still so very young at heart and in appearance. I remember seeing the clip of Dolly at a football game in a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders outfit. She was in her seventies, and she looked incredible. I remember thinking, “Girl, what?!” She had more energy out on that field than I have on my best morning. I decided right then that she is who I want to be at that age. 

We all knew the big personality, the hair, the humor and that unmistakable Dolly way of being Dolly. But after she passed, I started reading more about her life, and I realized there was a lot about her I didn’t know, like the story behind her hit “Jolene.” 

I had no idea that the song was inspired by a bank teller who took a liking to Dolly’s husband, Carl. Most of us, if we are being honest, would have handled that with a cold stare and a quiet change of banks. Dolly wrote a song about it instead, and it became one of the most recognizable songs in American music. When I read that, I laughed out loud. Um, Mark, my love, you would never get such a song from me. 

Dolly just had that “it” factor, didn’t she? And it earned her a fortune. But she didn’t die on anyone’s list of billionaires. For a woman who sold that many records and built that much, you might expect her name somewhere near the top. It wasn’t there. 

She was too generous for that. 

For decades she mailed free books to children through her Imagination Library, millions upon millions of them, including kids who might otherwise never have owned a book of their own. 

And the books were only part of it. Over the years, Dolly gave tens of millions of dollars to causes she cared about. She supported medical research, helped families who lost their homes in the Smoky Mountain wildfires and funded scholarships and education in her Tennessee community. When people needed help, she showed up. 

All of this got me thinking about my own definition of success. When you own a business, it’s easy to get a little obsessed with the numbers. You think about revenue and growth. You think about what the company is worth today and what you want it to be worth someday. I’ve certainly chased those numbers. 

But Dolly’s story points to a different question. What are we going to do with what we build? 

Mark and I have spent so much time with that same question. That’s why we started HireSmart Cares. We didn’t want our giving to be something we delayed because if you own a business, you know how that works. There is always another problem to solve, another goal to hit and a perfectly good reason to wait until later. 

But Dolly didn’t wait, did she? 

So here’s what’s on my mind right now, along with the first line of “9 to 5”: What could you do today that is a little bit “Dolly-esque?” 

It could be a big thing, but it doesn’t have to be. Maybe you just give someone a little of your time, or perhaps there’s something you’ve been saying you want to do for years, and you just go do it. 

Of course, I know why we put these things off. Business owners are forever saying, “I’ll get to that when things calm down.” Meanwhile, things never seem to calm down. 

And maybe that’s another reason Dolly’s “9 to 5” has been running through my head this week. That song is about the daily grind, isn’t it? 

I’ve learned the grind can’t be all there is! Don’t you feel that, too? You have to make room in your life for something besides the business. I want time for the things that matter to me and time to help people. And I certainly want to enjoy some of what Mark and I have worked so hard to build. 

But you’ll never automatically get that time just because your business becomes successful. You have to create it, and a big part of that is having capable people around you who can carry real responsibility without everything coming back to you. 

That’s one of my favorite things about what we do at HireSmart. I really love seeing what happens when an owner gets some of his or her life back. They can breathe easier, and the overwhelm lifts. New pictures enter their world, new realities. 

They finally have time to “yawn and stretch and try to come to life.” 

That “9 to 5” melody will live on, and so will Dolly’s beautiful legacy, which goes so far beyond music. 

The more I’ve learned about her this week, the more I’ve realized just what a joyful spirit she embodied. 

So I think I’ll keep trying to be a little more Dolly-esque, a little more joyful. 

And if you’re ready to pour yourself a cup of ambition and break out of the same old grind, I would love to have that conversation.