Blog

Most leaders know how to work a to-do list. The list that matters in the next chapter is much shorter. One word or one sentence you return to several times a day, so that when pressure arrives you meet it as the leader you are becoming.

Some moments arrive only once. A graduation, a final performance, the end of a season. A reflection on the story I used to tell myself about work, what changed it, and how three children in three different worlds each asked for a different kind of presence.

Bob Lennon launched Thermalwood Canada in 2008 with a technology North America had never heard of. Four months later the market crashed. His napkin explains what carried him through. Surround yourself with the expertise you need, then truly listen.

Kim Bode has run 834 for close to 20 years. She lost the house the company is named after, survived an embezzlement and a two-year legal battle, then had her best year ever. Then she made a harder call. Her napkin says find comfort in the uncomfortable.

The founders who feel stuck are rarely doing something wrong. They are doing something right for a life they have already outgrown. Why old success habits are so hard to question, and how to name the model, picture the next one and act before the proof arrives.

The person who will carry you to your next chapter is already looking back at you from the mirror. Why constant self-criticism stops pulling you forward, the difference between an observation and a verdict, and a simple practice for the start of each day.