ISSUE #014| THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

When gold is pulled from the ground, it doesn’t look valuable. It’s mixed with dirt, rock, and impurities.

So what do they do?

They apply heat. Not a little heat - extreme heat. Volcanic, dragon-breath kind of heat.

And something interesting happens when the temperature rises.

ISSUE #013| THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

Last week,I wrote about something deeply personal: why we build our businesses in the first place.

So that when life happens, we have the freedom to respond like humans.

To show up.
To be present.
To do what actually matters.

If you read that, you know it wasn’t just about business.

It was about life.

This week is different.

ISSUE #012| THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

As I write this, I’m sitting in a small Airbnb in San Francisco.

Not because I’m on vacation.

I’m here because my sister has brain cancer.

Last week she began a six-week protocol of daily radiation treatments here in the city. It’s all still very new for our family, and we’re learning the rhythm of this journey one day at a time.

ISSUE #011| THE LEADERSHIP CONTRARIAN

I believe thriving should be normal in business.

But there’s a problem.

We’ve normalized “average”.

And in the process, we’ve watered down the very idea of thriving.

For decades, most of our systems - education, management, leadership development - have aimed at a simple goal: move people up to average.

If someone struggles, we help them reach the middle of the bell curve.

And if someone rises far above it, we treat them as the exception. Something unusual. Something rare.

"Good for you," we say. "You’re one of the special ones."

But average was never meant to be the goal.