“If I slow down, I’ll lose my edge.” — Every Founder I Talk To

The Fear of Slowing Down

I have a lot of conversations with founders who are proud of their capacity to work hard, to grind, to do as many things in a day as possible, to be a hero.

When I point out that their pace is unsustainable, they agree. But they confess they have no idea how to slow down, and frankly, they aren’t sure they want to.

To them, the grind isn’t a cost, it’s a benefit.

You tell yourself the long hours, the intensity, the constant motion are what got you here. You push through the health scares, the strain at home, the gnawing sense that life’s passing by, that you’ll miss your children growing up. You convince yourself it’s necessary, that you’re doing it “for them.” Because the work feels important and urgent and you’re terrified you’ll miss your moment.

You hope all that grind will be worth it, and that you can fix everything you break once you hit your goal. Even if that’s after a decade or two.

But what if the very thing you’re afraid of losing is the thing that’s waiting to emerge?

What Your Edge Really Is

Most high performers mistake their edge for their speed.

They think:

• My ability to grind makes me different.
• My stamina is what keeps me ahead.
• I have to capitalize on this moment or I will lose it forever.

If your idea requires you to be first, it’s not a very sustainable idea.

If your edge relies on going faster than everyone else, it’s not an edge—it’s a coping mechanism.

Your real edge is your perspective.

It’s the unique mix of experience, insight, and values that no one else has. Your edge doesn’t come from pushing harder; it comes from getting still enough to hear your own voice.

The Secret No One Tells You

Slowing down doesn’t dull your ambition—it sharpens your aim.

When you stop running on adrenaline, the noise in your system fades. You start hearing a quieter signal: guidance, intuition, insight. The work that comes from that place isn’t just more sustainable—it’s unmistakably yours.

You become what I call an N of one—impossible to replicate, incomparable in the market. Building unique, sustainable things that no one can compete with. I’ve seen this in personalized industries like private air travel and health care, but I’ve also seen it in roofing, in construction, and even employee benefits administration.

How to Claim Your True Edge

You don’t need to meditate for an hour a day or escape to a retreat. Start with one minute of quiet—

• Use a binaural beats app or playlist to drop into stillness faster. (Training wheels for the meditative state!)
• Go for a run or even a walk in the park.
• See what’s humming beneath the noise—a feeling, an image, a knowing.
• Act on one small piece of that guidance each day.

Embrace what you find, even if, especially if, it makes no logical sense. This isn’t about huge leaps. It’s about slowly building trust in yourself, and those around you, for the sake of a bigger vision.

A vision that will be more and more deeply your own.

What You’ll Discover

When you slow down, you’ll see how much of your old drive was about proving something—to your parents, your past, or the mirror.

You’ll see your need to be enough in full force. And you’ll see it’s been running the show.

That insight is the beginning of freedom.

Freedom from the stories you keep telling yourself. The disastrous futures you make up at 4 in the morning.

You’ll start creating not from fear, but from freedom. Not only freedom from that stress, but freedom TO finally speak and be your truth. To step into your unique vision and create something from the sense of purpose that emerges.

When you can create anything, not just the thing you think will make others happy.

When you that, you customers find you. Your employees find you.

Because had the courage to show them the real you.

Want to Take This Deeper?

I’m creating a tool to help founders get unstuck from the daily grind. To start to get back to themselves while making decisions faster then ever.

Want a copy? Comment “Pick Now” and I will send you a copy when it’s ready.

I just saw a post that echoes what my coach told me about confidence a few years ago.

“Confidence is not a requirement. It’s a result.”

The idea is that the only way you get confidence is by doing something over and over.

It is certainly true as someone gets better at something their confidence increases. But what about when you really need to do something that you aren’t good at? Or that you are doing for the first time?

Founders are constantly doing this. Creating strategies that they have never executed on. Making decisions with about 10 percent of the information they need.

Most of the time they have no idea if what they are trying will work.

If You Don’t Have Confidence, Then What?

This week I was on Ryan Munsey’s  Move The Chains podcast talking about confidence, and clarity, and all kinds of other things that leaders need to move the chains (it’s an American football reference—the consistent forward motion that you need to win the game).

You don’t need confidence to do the thing. If you’re afraid, you can still do it. Make the phone call, have the conversation.

But where are you coming from in having that conversation?

Two Levels Beyond Confidence

What no one tells you is what’s just on the other side of confidence.

Boredom.

I want an accountant who has filed a thousand tax returns. I want a surgeon who has done the procedure 10,000 times.

But as an entrepreneur, I don’t want to ever do something 10,000 times. Nor do my clients.

So if none of us is ever going to get to that level of task confidence, how do we lead?

How do we feel the fear and do it anyway?

1. Commitment. If I’m not confident, I may choose not to do something. To reconsider. To analyze the data one more time. But if I am committed, I must do it. Even if I am only committed to a process. I might not be confident in my ability yet, but I can be confident that if I commit to a process I will get better and better. That the only way to get better, in fact, is to commit to a period of doing it badly. To commit to a process of improvement.
2. Certainty. At an even deeper level, you can operate from a place of certainty. That you have the innate ability to figure it out. That, in the words of an entrepreneur friend of mine (and upcoming podcast guest), “I didn’t come this far to have the universe drop me on my ass.”

You’re At the Door of the Plane

You’ve checked your chute (and your backup).

Do you jump, or not?

Of course you’re afraid. The fear is the sign you’re ready.

If you’re committed, if you’re certain, you jump. Despite the fear.

No, actually because of those things.

You can be committed and certain even if you don’t know exactly how things are going to work out.

The same holds true for your team.

They want you to lead them. Your commitment and certainty are a perfect filter. If they are inspired, they are your people. If not, kindly say goodbye and find someone who is.

What Are You Committed To?

What’s the thing you are willing to work at until it works out? What’s the thing you know, deep in your soul, is going to work out, even if you don’t know how?

Share in the comments.

Pick Now Podcast, Coming Soon!

I can’t wait to share some of the stories that I am hearing from founders who have made hard decisions, over and over. Subscribe to my emails to make sure you get the latest news.

If you’ve ever hiked in the mountains, you’ve probably hit a false summit. From below, you’re sure you’ve spotted the top. You push hard, heart pounding, legs burning, only to arrive and realize—you’re not there yet. The peak is still further on, hidden until now.

In business and in life, the same thing happens.

At a recent weekend on a Colorado ranch, I spent time with a group of founders who had already reached what most people would call the summit. They had sold companies and along that had gotten validation, recognition, and in many cases, a lot of money. And almost to a person, they told me some version of this:

“I thought it would finally make me feel like I was enough. Instead, it was the opposite. After a few days, I fell into a valley of despair. Disillusionment. Who am I now? If this isn’t it, what is?”

That’s the sting of a false summit. You think the climb is over, only to find a whole new stretch of trail you hadn’t planned for. And it’s overwhelming.

The financial success is real, and it matters. It buys freedom from: freedom from financial worry, freedom from needing to work again, freedom from the stress of survival. All of that is worth celebrating.

But it’s only one layer.

The deeper, more enduring freedom is freedom to—

• Freedom to say what you truly feel.
• Freedom to do what you actually want to do, to create what is in your heart, instead of what others expect.
• Freedom to be more, or just to simply be.

At our core we are infinite creativity. Most of us use that creativity to prove ourselves, or to fight against something.

I know for many years I was so attuned to what others wanted, that I had a hard time accessing what I wanted.

After doing all the things I was told would make me happy and still feeling empty, I began to see that the freedom I wanted wasn’t outside me, but inside. That I could free myself of the prison of others’ expectations. The prison that I had actually built.

You have built some version of this prison, too, and you have always had the key.

When you see you have always been free, you don’t stop creating. But you do create from a different place—one that isn’t about proving, but about expressing.

Whatever you call that—freedom, or mission, or purpose—is the real summit you’ve been looking for all along.

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Do you recognize any “false summits” in your own journey? What looked like the finish line, only to reveal itself as just another ridge on the climb?

Two weeks ago, Charlie Kirk was killed in a tragic act of violence.

In the aftermath, I started paying attention to Charlie Kirk in a way that I had not before. Obviously, there are wildly different perspectives on his views and his passionate defense of them.

I noticed, however, that there was agreement from both sides on one particular quality that he seemed to have no matter who he was talking to.

Over and over, both his supporters and his critics have said the same thing: when you spoke with Charlie Kirk, you felt listened to. You might not have walked away in agreement, but you walked away feeling heard.

That’s a rare quality. And whether you agreed with Charlie Kirk or thought his beliefs were abhorrent, that quality matters.

Does Your Team Trust That You’ve Got Them?

As a leader, you’ll make choices your team doesn’t like. But if your people believe their perspective was genuinely considered, they’re far more likely to stand with you. And if they sense you are open to change—curious enough to weigh new information, even if you don’t ultimately change course—that trust only deepens.

Charlie Kirk rarely shifted his public stances, but he left behind an example of what it looks like to make others feel heard. Like him, you may have principles that you are not willing to compromise on, and when you can explain those you will attract people who agree with and will defend those principles.

There are many decisions in running a team or a company that do not rise to that level. Where your team has information, or perspectives, that you do not have access to. When you can be genuinely curious, and willing to change your mind, your leadership is more powerful whether you change your mind or not.

That clarity doesn’t stall in indecision. It moves.

Get Input, then Pick Now

Leadership isn’t about waiting for perfect clarity. But it is about considering different perspectives. It’s about gathering input, listening deeply, and then making the call. Not just once, but again and again. Each pick builds momentum. Each pick shapes the future.

Curiosity. Listening. Decisive action. That’s how leaders pick now and keep building forward.

When was a time when you were genuinely curious, and how did it impact your team and your leadership?