Goals without outcomes

We confuse completing things with accomplishing things. At the end of every quarter, we review the list. Items checked. Meetings held. Initiatives launched. And we call it a win, even when the needle hasn’t moved. The problem isn’t effort. We’re very...

Whose approval anyway?

The product roadmap meeting runs three hours. The founder presents the features. The team debates the specs. Everyone has opinions about what the customer needs. The customer isn’t in the room. Research from Bain & Company found that 80% of companies believe...

The game we never stop playing

“The speed of the leader is the speed of the pack.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Kids don’t read the memo. They watch. The founder who cuts corners teaches her team that corners exist to be cut. The executive who dismisses questions trains his people to...

Too much, too fast

I think about this often. We are living in the most extraordinary information age in human history, and I am not sure we have fully reckoned with what that means. The access is stunning. In 2012 alone, IBM estimated that 2.5 exabytes of new data were generated every...

The map you keep ignoring

Every leader has guiding principles. Most just can’t name them. That is the problem. Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway on a single unwavering principle: invest in businesses with durable competitive advantages, then do nothing. Not clever tactics. Not...

Quiet luxuries

The dawn walk costs nothing. The pot of tea steeps in silence. The call to a friend, unplanned, unscheduled, simply made. No subscription required. No algorithm needed. Life’s richest moments arrive without announcement. Yet somehow, the freelancer chases the...