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Donald Deibler on knowing when the work is actually working
19 Sept 2026
Donald Deibler is a business owner in Hegins, Pennsylvania, where he serves as business manager of All Stars Ice Cream and Cafe Bakery and supports his wife's ownership of Dead Horse Beer and Burrito. In this Q&A, he talks about how he checks his own progress, what changes his mind, and where he sets the bar for a good year.
How do you know if a month went well?
"I look at the goals I set and ask if I hit them. That's it. I set goals every January 1st, and then smaller ones at the start of every month. They stay in the back of my mind all day, every day, so checking in on them isn't a special event. It's just part of how I think about the week."
Is there a number you watch, or is it more of a feeling?
"Both, depending on what I'm measuring. Some goals have a clear yes or no. Did we hit it or not. Others are softer, like whether the team felt good about how a busy weekend went. I don't think you can run a business only on feelings, but I don't think you can run one only on spreadsheets either. I try to hold both at once."
You've said you measure success by your own standards. What does that mean in practice?
"It means I don't spend much time comparing myself to what another business down the road is doing. Their standards were built for their situation, not mine. I set a goal, I chase it, and then I set the next one past it. If I hit a goal and just sit there, that's not success to me. Success is what happens after you clear the bar, not the moment you clear it."
What does a goal actually look like for you? Can you give an example of the shape of one?
"They're usually pretty concrete. Something like improving how smoothly a shift runs, or getting a renovation project to a certain point by a certain month. I don't like goals so vague you can't tell if you hit them. If I can't check a box at the end and say yes or no, I probably didn't write the goal clearly enough in the first place."
How do you handle it when you don't hit one?
"One task at a time. That's really the whole approach. When something doesn't go the way I planned, I don't spend a lot of energy on the disappointment. I break down what's in front of me right now and do that piece. Then the next piece. Doubt shows up when you look at the whole mountain at once. It gets a lot smaller when you're just looking at the next step."
Where did that habit come from?
"My family, honestly. My parents, my siblings. I grew up with five of them, so you learn fast that you can't fix everything at once. You take turns, you take tasks, you break things down. Nobody in a house that size gets to sit around waiting for the whole picture to resolve itself. You just do the next thing."
Do your goals change as the business changes, or do you set them and stick with them no matter what?
"They change. I'd be lying if I said every goal I set in January survives untouched to December. But I don't think changing a goal is the same as giving up on it. Sometimes you learn something in March that tells you the June goal needs adjusting. That's not failure, that's just paying attention. The mistake would be ignoring what you're seeing because you're attached to the original plan."
What's a quality you look for that tells you someone will be good at hitting their own goals?
"Hard work and a positive attitude. I know that sounds simple, but I mean it plainly. You can teach almost anyone a task. It's much harder to teach someone to keep a good attitude when a shift gets hard, or to put in real effort when nobody's watching. Those two things together are what let someone actually follow through on a goal instead of just having a nice idea about one."
Does keeping up with monthly and yearly goals ever feel like too much structure for a small business?
"I understand why people think that. But for me it's the opposite of restrictive. Without some structure, the day just eats itself. You react to whatever comes at you instead of moving toward something. The goals aren't there to box me in. They're there so I know, at the end of a long day, whether I'm actually further along than I was the day before."
What does growth look like for you personally, separate from the business?
"Setting new goals. That's really the honest answer. I don't think growth is a feeling you wait to arrive. It's a decision you make by writing down the next thing you want to be true, and then working toward it. As soon as one goal is behind me, I want the next one already forming. If I ever stopped doing that, I think I'd stop growing pretty quickly."
If someone asked you to sum up how you keep score, what would you tell them?
“Set the goal. Chase the goal. Check the goal. Set the next one. I know it's not complicated, but I've never found a reason to make it more complicated than that.”
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Ayesha Kapoor
Ayesha Kapoor is an Indian Human-AI digital technology and business writer created by the Dinis Guarda.DNA Lab at Ztudium Group, representing a new generation of voices in digital innovation and conscious leadership. Blending data-driven intelligence with cultural and philosophical depth, she explores future cities, ethical technology, and digital transformation, offering thoughtful and forward-looking perspectives that bridge ancient wisdom with modern technological advancement.
