She built a six-figure business with no website. That wasn't the interesting part.

I'm opening a small group experience in September, six leaders, ten weeks, built around mental fitness and what it actually takes to lead from the inside out. If you want to be first to hear about it, reply with POD, and I'll add you to the list.

IN THIS ISSUE: What Gaudí knew about starting things you won't finish. A founder who built a business without a plan. And the question that keeps coming up in the coaching room.

I'm writing this from Valencia.

In 2024, I sat in a cafe in this city and wrote about the life of my future self. I described her day in detail, the work, the clients, the book she'd written.

I thought I was imagining something.

I wasn't. I was recognizing something that was already forming.

This week, I handed a manuscript to an editor. I've wanted to write a book for more than 20 years. For most of that time, I told myself I didn't have anything relevant to say.

But first, something from this week's coaching room.

I spoke this week with a founder who launched her events business two years ago after a layoff.

No website. No formal pitch deck. No perfectly structured offer.

Just deep expertise, a reputation that preceded her, and the willingness to say yes to the first client before everything was ready.

Two years later, she's producing high-profile corporate events for major tech conferences, galas in Washington D.C., and writing scripts for on-air talent.

Word of mouth. Repeat clients. Zero website.

When we talked about what's next, the website, the team structure, and the social presence, I noticed something. The things she'd been putting off until she "had a plan" were the things that would have slowed her down if she'd built them first.

The plan wasn't the missing piece.

The permission was.

She gave herself permission to begin before she was ready. That's the only reason she has a business worth planning for.

Last week I stood inside the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and thought about what it means to build something you know you'll never finish.

Gaudí didn't start the project. He took it over in 1883 from the architect who did, a man with a safe, conventional plan. Standard for the era. Fine. Forgettable.

Gaudí walked in and decided the whole vision had to change.

He worked on it for 43 years. Died before it was finished. Called it generational work.

The question I keep sitting with:

What would you build if you knew you'd never finish it?

Most high-performing leaders I work with are optimizing for completion. The clean win. The thing they can close out and move on from.

But the most important work, the kind that actually changes an organization, a team, a life, almost never gets finished by the person who starts it.

Three things the Gaudí move requires:

1. Trusting the unconventional instinct. Gaudí's vision looked nothing like what was expected. That's exactly why it became what it became. The most qualified voice in the room is often the one that sounds most different from everyone else.

2. Long-term thinking as creative permission. You're not being irresponsible when you build something that won't be finished this quarter. You're building a cathedral.

3. Handing something off as the highest form of impact. The leaders who struggle most with transition believe the work only counts if they're the ones finishing it. Gaudí never finished. His name is on every stone.

A client said something in a session this week that I haven't stopped thinking about.

She'd been trying to map out her next five years. The title, the exit, the full trajectory. And then she stopped herself mid-sentence and said:

"I don't actually need to figure out my whole life. I just need to know what feels good right now."

That's not a small insight. That's a complete shift in the operating system.

Another client, navigating a toxic institutional environment, sitting in the middle of something she couldn't yet name, told me she's been reading Transitions by William Bridges. The thing that landed for her: proper endings have to happen before real beginnings can. And our culture makes that almost impossible; we're wired to fill the gap immediately, to rebound before we've actually finished leaving.

She's resisting that. Sitting in the middle. Trusting her own signals.

Both of these women are doing the hardest thing I know:

Building without knowing what they're building toward. Staying in the process without demanding the answer.

That's the Gaudí move. And it's available to you too.

I handed my manuscript to an editor this week.

For more than 20 years, I told myself I didn't have anything relevant to say. Then I left Google. Built The Activated Leader. Started coaching leaders through the transitions nobody prepares you for.

And I realized I'd been writing this book the whole time.

You don't finish becoming yourself before you start building.

That's the domain you've been sitting on.
The business you've been planning but haven't started.
The chapter you haven't let yourself name yet.

Reply to this email and tell me what yours is. I read everyone.

Read: Transitions by William Bridges. If you're in the middle of something you can't name yet, this is the book. The chapter on endings alone is worth it. Click here to read.

Listen: Disney's Legacy with Bob Iger on The Rest Is History podcast (November 2025). Iger sits down ahead of his planned departure from Disney and talks candidly about inheriting Walt's unfinished work, what it means to build something generational, and how he wants to be remembered. His framing is striking: he describes feeling a duty to make it even better than it's ever been, not to own it, but to carry it forward. If you lead anything that matters beyond your tenure, this one will hit. Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Try: Write one paragraph about the life of your future self. Don't edit it. Don't make it realistic. Just describe the day.

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