Earned keys

We wouldn’t hand a Ferrari to someone who just got their license last week. The thought alone makes us wince. The speed, the power, the responsibility – it’s not about gatekeeping. It’s about readiness. We want them to survive the drive. We...

The invisible yardstick

We measure others with yardsticks they’ve never seen. Expectations we’ve carried for years, shaped by experiences they’ll never know. That executive who taught us punctuality equals respect. The mentor who showed us how to prepare is a way of...

Lying is for kids

My son asked me something last week that stopped me cold. “Why would adults lie?” We’d been discussing someone’s behavior—the small evasions, the careful omissions, the gray-area truths. He couldn’t fathom it. Kids lie out of fear, he...

The mirror trap

I caught myself mid-sentence yesterday with a client. “You need to…” Stop. That’s not my job. My job isn’t to tell founders what they need. It’s to help them see what they already know but haven’t admitted yet. There’s...

Protecting whom?

The decision is made. Workforce reductions. Necessary for survival. But here’s where we fool ourselves. We announce the cuts, then add a generous notice period because we “care.” Three months, sometimes more. Time to find their next opportunity, we...