Surround Yourself With Warriors: How to Keep Your Fire Burning When the World Tries to Put It Out You become who you surround yourself with. So surround yourself with people who make you dangerous. One thing I love about being on the mat is feeling the fire of my fellow warriors. There’s an energy that happens when you’re training with people who are fully committed. Who are pushing themselves. Who refuse to quit. You can feel it. It’s in the intensity of the roll. The focus in their eyes....
1 day ago • 8 min read
Why Leaders Think Differently: The Critical and Probabilistic Thinking Skills Nobody Teaches You You don’t need all the information to make the right choice. You need enough information to make a choice—and then make it right. If you can’t learn to think for yourself and figure shit out on your own, you can never truly be a leader. That’s not an opinion. That’s a definition. A leader, by definition, is someone willing to stand on their own. To stand in front. To go where most others are not...
3 days ago • 8 min read
Not All Warriors Carry Swords: Why the Most Badass Fighters You’ve Never Heard of Used Pencils Instead You don’t need a mat, a ring, or a battlefield to be a warrior. Sometimes all you need is a pencil and the refusal to quit. Hidden Figures A few weeks ago, I watched Hidden Figures again. I love this movie. Not because it’s a feel-good story—though it is. Not because it’s well-made—though it is. But because it’s about warriors. Not the kind most people think of when they hear that word. Not...
4 days ago • 8 min read
The Power of Stories: Why Great Leaders Are Great Storytellers (And Why Your Team Needs a New Script) People don’t resist change because they’re stupid. They resist change because they don’t have a story to guide them through it. 9/11 Twin Towers before the collapse On September 11, 2001, Marissa Panigrosso was working on the ninety-eighth floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. When the first plane hit the North Tower, a wave of hot air came through her glass windows. As intense...
5 days ago • 8 min read
How Good of a Leader Are You? The Real Test Is What Happens When You Leave the Room If your team falls apart without you, you’re not a leader. You’re a bottleneck. When I got started in construction in the 80s, I was told that every day was an audition. That it didn’t matter what you did last year, last month, or even yesterday. What mattered was what you were doing today. And they were right. But it was also incomplete. Back then, I didn’t really know the 80/20 Rule. I didn’t realize I was...
6 days ago • 8 min read
Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time: Why Small Wins Beat Big Dreams You can quit tomorrow. But today, you can do this one small thing. And that’s all that matters. Navy SEALs during Hell Week I was watching a clip of Navy SEAL training. The theme was something I’d seen before. But it was a good reminder. “You can quit tomorrow.” That’s what the instructors tell the trainees during Hell Week. During the moments when the pain is unbearable, when the cold is soul-crushing, when every fiber of...
7 days ago • 8 min read
The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make (And Why What Got You Here Will Hold You Back There) The skill that earned you the promotion is the exact skill that will undermine your leadership if you don’t evolve. What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith There’s a pattern I’ve seen play out over and over again. On the jobsite. On the mat. In boardrooms. In businesses. A person gets promoted because they’re good. Really good. They know their craft. They produce results. They solve...
8 days ago • 8 min read
If You Want to Go Far, Go Together—But Only If Everyone’s Pulling in the Same Direction The African proverb is right. But it’s missing a critical caveat that most leaders learn the hard way. You’ve heard the saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It’s a great line. It’s true. And it’s incomplete. Because here’s what nobody tells you about going together: If everybody isn’t aligned with where you’re going, you won’t go fast and you won’t go far. You’ll...
9 days ago • 8 min read
This Isn’t Happening TO You. It’s Happening FOR You. The moment you make this one shift in mindset, everything changes. I grew up small. Single mom. Two kids. Private school on a working-class budget because she believed education mattered enough to sacrifice for it. My father—a man broken by childhood trauma and from being a combat medic in the war, in a time when nobody talked about those things and there were even fewer resources to help—didn’t know how to carry the weight he was carrying....
10 days ago • 8 min read