If you’ve ever had the feeling of being stuck in your business? Where things are chaotic and frustrating? Here’s a tip to break through the ceiling each and every time.

Fable 5 is live. And every new model launch feels like Christmas. It truly is a fantastic time to be alive.

The best Visionaries in history shared a few common qualities. Steve Jobs showed all of them: In every great company, there's someone who sees what's coming before anyone else does. They might not be the loudest person in the room.  But they're usually the reason the room exists in the first place. Steve Jobs was one of the clearest examples of this we've ever seen. Every founder can take on a few of these lessons from him: (See the graphic below for the full 20) 1. Complexity is the enemy ↳ Look at your product, your process, your meetings. Find one thing to cut this week. 2. Good enough isn't finished ↳ Ask your team: what would make this 10% better right now? 3. No is a strategy ↳ List everything on your plate. Pick the three that actually matter and protect them. 4. Talent beats resume ↳ In your next hire, ask what they've built, not just where they've worked. 5. Culture doesn't protect itself ↳ Name one behavior your team tolerates that contradicts your values. Deal with it. 6. Vision only works if people can see it ↳ Write your 10-year picture in one paragraph. Share it with your team this week. 7. Execution is part of the standard ↳ Find one place where the delivery is letting the idea down. Own it. 8. Build the team around your gaps ↳ Identify where you're weakest. Name who could fill it. 9. Being misunderstood comes with the territory ↳ What decision have you been sitting on because of what others might think? 10. Think longer than your competitors are willing to ↳ Where does this business need to be in 10 years? Write it down today. 11. How you show up is the brief ↳ Walk into your next meeting knowing your energy sets the standard for everyone in the room. 12. Build for the person who doesn't know what they need yet ↳ Ask: are we solving today's problem or tomorrow's? Jobs didn't stumble into building one of the greatest companies in history. He held a standard. He protected a vision.  And he refused to let the business drift from what it was supposed to be. That's what the best Visionaries do. P.S. Every Visionary has blind spots. The ones who build something successful learn to face them.

Founders who realize they don't have to do it all scale. If you struggle breaking through the ceiling, it's probably because you ARE the bottleneck.

West Reading, PA is a diamond in the rough. Cool shops, great places to eat. Small, but really good.

At my daughter's eighth-grade graduation last week, a student shared a quote. "Stop trying to make things easy. Every time you try to make it easy, you end up just making it more complex." Simple is not easy. Do the hard work to make things simple.

Vision without structure is just hallucination.

I think there’s going to be a big opportunity for real writers. We can all pretty much recognize AI writing right away. Makes some stuff unreadable. Hiring real writers will be in big demand.

What you tolerate, you endorse. As a leader, the question arises: what exactly are you endorsing? In my view, you should only endorse: - Living your core values - High standards of execution - Doing exactly what you say you will do - Operating with a high level of persistence and integrity In business, this means having the capacity to deliver on your role. It requires high moral standards and deep personal discipline. Anything less should not be tolerated. Letting it slide creates behaviors you cannot stand behind. But let’s clarify what “not tolerating” means. It does not mean immediate dismissal or creating a culture of fear. We are all human. Not tolerating a gap means addressing it immediately through coaching and correction. The real metric is progress: Are they trying to improve? Is there visible growth? Most importantly, this standard applies to you first. True leadership is a mirror. You must constantly self-correct and apply your learning to improve daily. Some things are outside a person’s control. But people have more control than they think. Blaming genetics, environment, or bad luck is a convenient defense mechanism that absolves accountability. Real leadership means coaching people up, assuming they are open to it. The goal is not a micromanaged team but a self-policing culture. When individuals work on themselves first, they hold themselves and each other to higher standards. Achieving this creates a team that refuses to tolerate issues, building a truly elite organization. This also applies to families, friends, and anyone you spend time with.