I spent 20 years as a management consultant.

Made Partner in my 30s.

Led teams of 100+ people.

Run 9-figure client portfolios.

Lived and worked in 4 continents.

I can tell you: success lies behind “systems”, and the ability to convince people to first accept them and then put them into practice.

Strong individualities are rarely enough.

You begin to “win” (whatever winning might mean to you) when you surround yourself with other smart people and start trusting them.

You will face a paradox: the better they are, the more they will challenge you - not just professionally, but personally.

You will not like everything they do.

You would have done many things differently.

At times, you will even question whether you are the weak link in the room.

As a consultant, this truth often feels sharp!

I have led teams of specialists who were better at their niche than I could ever hope to be.

I still do.

My job is not to outperform them, but really to enable them, even when my ego whispers otherwise.

With time, I learned that my team’s mistakes might still be the best moves for the system.

They may not be perfect, but they are theirs, and that ownership creates a buy-in no perfectly executed plan could ever replicate.

So… I hold back and trust the process, confident that the result will be something greater than I could have ever achieved alone.