Simon Sinek offers a counterintuitive take: The moment you step in and fix the problem, you stop being a leader:
You got promoted because you were the best at the job.
And that's precisely what makes leadership so difficult.
The same instinct that made you great at the work, seeing the problem, knowing the answer, fixing it fast, becomes a liability the moment you move into a leadership role.
Simon is direct about this:
"Then you're not leading. You're just doing the work. You just have the leadership position."
The people who now report to you may not be as good as you. They'll move slower. They'll miss things you would have caught immediately.
And in those moments, every instinct will tell you to step in.
But that instinct is exactly what you have to resist.
"You can't just come in and tell them how you would do it. You have to push them to solve the problems the way that they would, just like someone did for you once before."
Someone once gave you the space to figure it out. That patience is what shaped you. Now it's your turn to offer the same to others.
Simon points to Chanel as a company that has built this principle into its culture.
Newly hired senior leaders are not allowed to speak in meetings for their first three months.
"You don't know anything about our company. And you'll learn by listening."
Chanel trusts that their leaders will be around for the long term, so 90 days of silence is a small price to pay for someone who truly understands the business before they start shaping it.
That's institutionalised patience. And it's almost unheard of.
Most organisations reward speed, decisiveness, and output. So the pressure to swoop in and fix things feels justified, even virtuous.
But Simon draws a hard line between having a leadership position and actually leading.
One is a title. The other is a practice.
And that practice demands something most high performers find deeply uncomfortable. Watching someone struggle toward an answer you already have, and choosing to let them find it themselves.
That restraint is the real work of leadership.
Pep's greatest pre-match talk:
“Do your thoughts control you, or do you control your thoughts?”
That was before the final Premier League game against West Ham. A title race that went down to the wire with Arsenal. History on the line, the chance to win four Premier Leagues in a row. History was made that day.
My best ever pre-match talk.
Now bring on Arsenal. We'll take them head-on.
BUILDING STRONG CHILDREN,WHAT TO DO AT EVERY STAGE:
1. 0–1 year: skin-to-skin contact builds trust and brain wiring
2. 1–2 years: let them explore freely — crawling and touching builds intelligence
3. 2–3 years: read aloud daily — language at this stage shapes everything
4. 3–5 years: imaginative play develops empathy and creativity together
5. 5–7 years: teach them to lose gracefully — resilience starts here
6. 7–9 years: give them small responsibilities — confidence grows from contribution
7. 9–11 years: encourage a hobby they chose themselves — not one you chose for them
8. 11–13 years: teach emotional vocabulary before puberty hits
9. 13–15 years: listen more than you speak — this age needs witnesses not lectures
10. 15–17 years: involve them in real decisions — they rise to what you trust them with
11. 17–18 years: teach them how to fail and recover, not just how to succeed
12. All ages: eat together — the family table is the original classroom
13. All ages: model the behaviour you want — they watch everything you do
14. All ages: say sorry when you are wrong — it teaches more than any lesson
15. All ages: tell them who they are, not just what they did
I heard a therapist say, “Your feelings are always valid, your behavior is not.” She explained by saying feel what you feel BUT you need to be accountable for what you do as a result of those feelings.
If you are a woman who wants to rise above
- Mediocrity
- Degeneracy
- Depression
- and the chaos of the modern world,
Read this thread and fix your life.
🧵
My wife and I have been married for 30 years. I’m 63 this year and worked as a financial analyst at JPMorgan Chase. During my retirement party, my daughter told me she wanted to learn about investing, so I started writing a simple investment guide for her. My wife suggested that I share this guide for free on Threads. If you’re interested in investing, please like and follow. Hope this guide can be useful to you.
If you need to end the week on a smile - watch this video.
Remember it was published early in 2025 - before many events happened.
This is art imitating life - and it’s really funny.
The love and respect cycle often breaks the moment one person lays offense down and chooses service anyway. Not because the pain wasn’t real, but because humility is stronger than ego and it resets the atmosphere. Honor looks like seeing the weight he carries and responding with peace, gratitude, and partnership instead of keeping score. That’s how trust gets rebuilt, one surrendered choice at a time.