💛 Hey friend,
Something I've been thinking about lately is this: the more successful we get, the quieter the thrill becomes.
There’s an aliveness that exists when your company is early and uncertain, your back is against a wall, and you genuinely don't know – Is this going to happen? Is it going to work? Can I actually pull this off?
When money comes and things stabilize, that’s great, but that particular kind of alive-ness can start to quietly fade.
And I think a lot of what drives accomplished people toward new challenges, whether they realize it or not, is that they're trying to find their way back to that feeling.
It never ceases to amaze me – successful people must find ourselves in spaces where we're being grown, and we're being stretched, and we're being pushed.
This was on full display recently at the workshop I led in Austin, so today we’re gonna talk about it.
Coffee + Brunch + Beach Walk (hell ya!)
There's no ticket needed.
💛
Last Week, In Austin…
We had a group of really accomplished people together for one day – exited founders, long-time leaders, people with serious track records – to do something that required a completely different kind of courage than building a company.
They came to learn how to facilitate. How to run a room. How to create a space that calls forth the best in others.
And I admire the hell out of them for it because:
It’s a totally new experience that makes you vulnerable, and…
It requires you to go beyond yourself, and hold immense space with others as they find their edge too
I watched it happen live. Watched as really successful people showed up and tried things that they weren't polished at in the morning. But they stuck with it, and by the afternoon, they really, really found it.
Two moments are still on my mind, even days later:
First, of a founder with a very successful exit who’s now focused on building his next great thing (and holly shit there's never been anything like this). He doesn’t need the money. And yet, he’s still out here grappling with something that’s very new to him, pushing himself to new levels, in pursuit of excellence, and in service to others.
✨ He's living proof that the best of the best must continue to be challenged.
And second, an interaction between two men. One held space for the other to go somewhere really deep and real, and he did it with very few words and just an enormous amount of presence.
It was tough. Really, I was asking both of them to go somewhere that’s new for them. But they did, and dammit, I’m telling you, you could feel something shift in the room when it happened.
It got me thinking: As leaders, we’re called on to create this space for our team to show up and find their own edge too.
If we don’t do that – and if we don’t even try to learn how – we’re being selfish, and we’re missing out by far on the best that people can give us.
Okay, here's a third moment. And yes, I blindfold people and put my foot on them (physicality moves people through a space faster and with more impact)
Bottom line…
Great facilitation is being able to hold a space so steadily, and so surely, and so compassionately, and so kindly, that we allow for other people to walk to the edge of where they're living, and find something within themselves that wants to find space, or air, or energy, or an outlet.
And really, that should be the goal of every great leader too.
Because even if you already hired the best people, you have an incredible product, and your team has the resources to deliver – if you aren’t intentionally creating the conditions for them to go to the edges of what they're capable of, you are leaving the most valuable thing on the table.
Getting there is tough. You have to go to new places within yourself to create that kind of presence for others.
But as A-players, they crave that from you.
The most successful leaders I know are the ones who understand that their job is to make it possible for their people to find what those men found on Saturday – that place beyond their edge, where the real growth happens.
💛 Angela
