When a key employee started a competing firm and took one of our clients with them, I was furious. They’d signed a non-compete and an NDA, so as far as I was concerned, they were clearly in the wrong. I knew I had

I heard the same criticism in employee surveys, exit interviews, and even from people on my senior leadership team. I was too critical.Hard to please.Rarely satisfied. And each time I heard it, some version of this thought went through my mind: But am

Would people still respect me if I said I didn’t know?  I didn’t think so.So I rarely said it.  I believed my business was growing and profitable because I knew things other people didn’t know. My expertise helped me win clients and earn

They’re great.They’re impossible.And you can’t afford to lose them. At least that’s what you keep telling yourself. You have lots of evidence for the “great” part: They’re reliable. Everyone likes them. They know where everything is and they’ve been with you for years.  Then there’s the other part. The part about

There is always more to do. That’s what makes the voice in my head so convincing. It’s technically right. And the voice isn’t new. When I was ten, as soon as I finished my Frosted Flakes, it would start urging me to make the bed, read

My husband loves to tell the story about something I said when we first met. “I’ve created my reality by thinking a certain way and if you challenge it, everything could fall apart. I have to believe what I’m doing is right and stay focused

Every founder I know makes some version of this bargain: I’ll feel good when I hit the number. I’ll relax when the deal closes. I’ll rest when the team is solid. I’ll stop pushing when I’m sure it’ll work. But we’re not just postponing feeling

I make movies in my mind. And so do you. We did it when we started our businesses.  We saw ourselves calling the shots, finally doing things our way. It felt intoxicating and invigorating. If we hadn’t been able to see it and feel it, we

I’ve made some spectacularly bad decisions in business. Strangely, they’re not the ones I regret most. The decisions I made gave me something to work with. A result. A lesson. A chance to do better next time. The decisions I didn’t make left me with only my