From Surviving to Thriving What Business Owners Can Learn from Dr. Joseph Fabry’s Teachings on Meaning
In today’s unpredictable business landscape, most entrepreneurs are familiar with stress, strategy, and spreadsheets. But what about meaning?
Amid the pressures of cash flow, competition, and growth, finding “meaning” in a business can feel like a luxury. Yet as many seasoned business owners will tell you—especially those who’ve built and exited successful companies—there comes a point when revenue alone stops being fulfilling.
Enter Dr. Joseph Fabry.
A Holocaust survivor, Viennese philosopher, and student of Viktor Frankl, Fabry helped bring the power of logotherapy — the psychology of meaning — into everyday life. While his works weren’t written for the C-suite, they do offer essential insights for anyone navigating the highs and lows of leadership, purpose, and personal growth.
In this blog, I’ll suggest what business owners can learn from Fabry’s writings—and how those lessons can transform not just your leadership, but your life.
Dr. Fabry was more than just a psychologist and writer—he was a bridge. In working closely with Viktor Frankl, Fabry became one of the foremost interpreters of logotherapy for a modern audience. His most accessible book, The Pursuit of Meaning, serves as a practical guide to applying meaning-centered thinking in daily life.
Fabry believed that every person, no matter what their circumstances, has the freedom to choose how they respond to life—and that fulfillment comes not from comfort, but from discovering one’s meaning in work, suffering, and love. ( Imagine holding firmly to and living that belief after having survived the Holocaust…?)
For business owners, this worldview offers a refreshing alternative to burnout, boredom, or bitterness. It shows a way to re-engage with the deeper “why” behind the enterprise.
Responsibility Over Reaction
One of Fabry’s central themes, drawn from Frankl, is the idea that between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom.
In business, especially during difficult times—economic downturns, bad hires, lawsuits, and failed products—leaders are often pulled into reactive mode. Emotions run hot. Decisions get rushed. Mistakes multiply.
Fabry’s writing reminds us: You always have a choice.
You can choose to act, not react. You can choose your value s over your impulses. You can choose to lead with clarity, not just urgency. When you embrace responsibility—not in the punitive sense, but in the empowered sense—you move from being a manager of problems to a steward of purpose.
Meaning Through Contribution
Fabry emphasizes that “meaning” is often discovered in three main ways:
- Through creative acts (what we give to the world),
- Through experiential appreciation (what we receive from the world),
- And through our attitude in the face of unavoidable suffering.
For business owners, the first is especially potent.
Your company isn’t just a vehicle for profit—it’s a vehicle for contribution. Whether you’re employing five people or five hundred, serving ten clients or ten thousand, you are making a dent in the world.
When you see your business as a contribution—not just a company—you reconnect with purpose. Decisions gain perspective. Burnout lessens. Pride returns.
Ask: What are we giving to our clients? To our team? To our community, or “tribes”?
The answers often point straight to meaning.
Reframing Suffering
Fabry never sugarcoated pain. A survivor of war and oppression, he understood suffering better than most. Yet he refused to see it as meaningless.
For business owners, suffering may come in different forms—failure, betrayal, market collapse, personal loss—but the principle remains:
Suffering is not good, but it can be transformative.
Fabry teaches that we can endure and even transcend hardship by choosing our attitude toward it. When leaders face difficulty with dignity, they build credibility and culture. When they reframe crisis as an opportunity for growth, innovation emerges. This doesn’t mean ignoring real pain. It means honoring it by choosing how we respond. The next time your business hits a wall, consider Fabry’s mindset: What is this situation asking of me? What strength is this challenge calling forth?
The Existential Vacuum and Post-Exit Drift
Fabry often warned of the “existential vacuum”—a sense of emptiness that arises when a person lacks meaning or direction.
Business owners are especially vulnerable to this vacuum after they exit.
For years, their identity is wrapped up in being the leader, the founder, the fixer. When that role ends—whether by sale, succession, or burnout—what remains?
Fabry’s answer: Your meaning does not disappear when your title does. It simply asks to be rediscovered.
Post-exit business owners can learn from Fabry’s encouragement to pursue meaning in new ways—through mentorship, creative pursuits, family, philanthropy, or spiritual exploration.
The key is to not confuse success with significance. Your life’s meaning may be rooted in your business journey—but it is never limited by it.
Living Authentically, Not Automatically
Finally, Fabry invites us to live with what he calls existential self-awareness. This means stepping back from the mechanical flow of tasks, meetings, and goals, and asking:
Am I doing what matters most?
Is this choice aligned with who I truly want to be? What legacy am I building—intentionally or accidentally?
This mindset is vital for business owners. In the rush of growth, it’s easy to become a prisoner of momentum.
Fabry’s reminder: Don’t just build. Reflect. Don’t just execute. Exist.
Meaning doesn’t arrive with a milestone. It’s uncovered through conscious, values-driven living—moment by moment.
Final Thought: Fabry’s Wisdom for the Modern Entrepreneur
Joseph Fabry never ran a startup. He didn’t scale a tech company or sit on a board. But his work offers timeless guidance for the modern business owner.
He reminds us that the ultimate freedom is to find meaning—no matter the market conditions, headlines, or quarterly reports.
So whether you’re grinding toward your next breakthrough or wondering what comes after success, consider this: Your leadership journey is more than a business story. It’s a human one. And in that story, purpose isn’t a luxury.
It’s the point.
