LEADERS, THINK WAAAAY BIGGER IN 2026!

LESSON: Fear and complacency cripple great careers and great lives. Slap yourself tomorrow and force yourself to think 10x bigger. Reach for the stars, and if you fall a little short, you’ll capture the moon. Set your alarm earlier tomorrow!

Years ago, when our seven investment firms were thriving, we always held our annual corporate retreats in Nags Head, North Carolina at my beach house and rented three more for the entire firm to spend the weekend.

As always, we did the rapid-fire round of every single person standing up in front of the entire firm with two PowerPoint slides. First was the detailed list of what they said they were going to accomplish last year and where they succeeded and where they failed (it was a great way to cull the herd of any C-players because they would resign before having to face their teammates with great failure). Then the second slide would list what they were specifically going to accomplish next year and always included a reverse disclaimer at the bottom stating this will be accomplished with no excuses, even if floods, earthquakes, locusts! (stealing a line from Blues Brothers).

But one year we ended the retreat with a Practice Buying out Goldman Sachs cocktail Party! Everyone was given a new title and nametag – Director of Institutional Derivatives, East Asia Alternative Investments, President of Subordinated Debentures!

Martinis and Cosmos were the only allowable beverages. All conversation had to be spoken in past tense verbiage of our recent buyout. I gave an emotional speech of how proud I was of everyone! We even sent a registered letter to Henry Blankfein, Goldman’s CEO, to ethically announce our buyout intentions.

Since I’ve been home from seven years in prison, I struggle every morning to compartmentalize the fear and complacency and not to let myself be comfortable with how great my life is and that I should just be grateful. Some mornings you can hear me yelling at myself in the third-floor office to “suck it up!”, quit whining about a packed schedule, and to make sure I achieve incredible growth that I didn’t believe was possible when I was lying on that prison metal bunk.

The brain must go before the body. The mind must believe in greatness before the actions can follow. Fear, rationalization, and complacency must be literally burned from our brains. Take a run this weekend and only listen to Tonny Robbins or Joel Osteen videos.

Burn the boats and don’t give yourself any other choice. The Universe will make it happen in ways you cannot even fathom today. Just keep speaking victory!

Have a great week!