To achieve significant growth and make 2026 your best year, you must proactively abandon current competencies, embrace temporary regression, prioritize recovery, make bold upfront investments, and build systems that enable your business to thrive independently of your direct involvement.
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2026 can be the best year of your life,
but only if you start preparing now. At
22, I was broke. I was super lost, and I
was terrified that I was never going to
figure out what I need to do. But now, I
run a multi-million dollar business. And
I feel like every new year is a
basically completely different life for
me. And if you can actually apply these
five principles, then you can make 2026
one of the best years of your life. And
I want to help you do it. Number one,
fire yourself from jobs you're good at.
Okay? The biggest threat to your future
is actually not your weaknesses. It is
your competence. It's what you're good
at right now. So when I had my first
company, this is about 10 years ago, I
had been in sales my entire career. And
so at my company, when we stand up the
company, I'm selling people in the
programs. And so I was the best
salesperson that we had. So I stopped
selling. So it felt like when I did
that, people would be like, "Why would
you do that? That's like the worst thing
you could do cuz it feels like cutting
off your right hand when you're
right-handed." But the company didn't
need another great salesperson. It
needed somebody who could build a team
of them. And so what I had to do and
what I've continued to do to build a
company, I had to get bad at something.
I had to be okay being bad at something
new to become valuable in a new way.
Something I talk to people about,
entrepreneurs especially time and time
again, who you are today and all the
things that you're so amazing at, all
the things that you're great at are all
the reasons why you're not going to be
able to get to the next level. And it's
like the hardest thing to hear because
it's like you being really good at
sales, you being really good at customer
service, you being really good at
building the product. Those become the
reasons why you're not able to build a
bigger company, not able to build a
bigger business, and not able to attract
a better team. And so what growth
requires in anything is it requires
trading mastery for incompetence. You
feel like, well, now that I've mastered
this thing, I'm done and like I should
just keep mastering it until I keep
getting better. But the reality is that
the next skill that comes once you've
mastered something is not more of
mastery. There's nothing more there.
It's the top. It's getting bad at the
new thing and then mastering that one
until you hit the next ceiling. Every
new level is going to demand a different
version of you, which means that you
have to kill the old one that you're
verying proud of and really good at. So
in business, for example, a lot of the
times people are like, I'm going to
delegate all the stuff that I'm bad at
and hate. And that's a great way to
start. In fact, that's how you usually
should start. But that is not how you're
going to keep growing. It is how you
will maximize the current stage you're
in. But it's not going to get you to the
next stage. In fact, what gets you to
the next stage is outsourcing the things
that you're really good at. The goal is
temporary regression in service of a
long-term expansion. Not permanent
mediocrity, right? Just temporary
mediocrity, knowing that it's going to
lead to your long-term goal. oftentimes
when you're doing bodybuilding, which is
something I used to do. And it's like
I'm really good at dieting. And so, for
example, for me, it's like I spent years
losing weight. And then what I realized
is that the skill of losing weight
actually was the opposite skill for when
I wanted to learn how to build muscle.
When you're losing weight, I got really
good at that. I knew how to be hungry. I
was okay with being hungry. I knew how
to eat less. I knew how to count my
calories. I knew how to walk a ton. I
knew how to do cardio. I knew how to do
all these things. To build muscle, I
actually had to be full more. I actually
had to eat more food. I had to learn how
to pack food with me so I wouldn't skip
meals. It's not that they were in
contrast with each other and not getting
me to my long-term goals. It's that this
one had to come before this one for me.
This one I lost weight and then I said,
"I want to put on muscle." Me learning
more and mastering how to lose weight
was not going to help me or transfer
over to me learning how to build muscle.
The same goes for business, for example.
It's like, okay, me learning how to run
a team of 10 and be like the head
salesperson, the head CS person, take
all the escalations and work 14 hours a
day to run a $10 million business is
actually the opposite skill I need of
the person that runs a hundred million
business because 100 million I can't do
any of these things. I have to learn how
to not be a salesperson, not be a CS
person, not take any escalations, and
not work 14 hours a day. So, you see
what I'm saying? The things that have
made you so valuable for where you're at
in your life right now are often the
very things that will make you
invaluable in the next era of your life.
Now, here's what you can do. List what
you're absolutely best at and then
delegate it entirely. Take on roles
where you will be the worst person at
them and then get comfortable being
terrible at something that really
matters to your long-term goal. Me
learning how to unlearn all these things
that got me to one level and learning
how to get to the next level, it's a
completely different skill. I realized
about a year ago a skill that got me to
a hundred million dollar company was
that when there was a huge big problem
with a department I would go in I would
fix it and I would you know tie a little
bow on it and I'd replace somebody in
there and then I said does Ila running a
billion dollar and$10 billion company
does she jump into a department no she
would say I'm going to hire the person
to go do it even though I could do it my
goal now and what's more important to my
growth is me focusing on the long-term
plan there are so few things that are
short-term in my company that are now
more important than me focusing on the
long-term plan. So, I can't react like
that anymore. So, then the skill that
got me to a very large company of being
able to jump in and turn around a very
important department is now the very
skill that prevent me from having a
bigger company. So, I have to trade the
skill. I now have to have the skill of
the moment that happens, I have to go
recruit somebody. So, now the skill of
recruiting executives and CEOs on a
regular continuous basis is more
important than the skill of being able
to jump in and fix something. Doing
becomes less valuable than thinking.
Different skills. Number two, normalize
regressing to progress if you can't
handle looking dumb. Do not complain
about being average at something. When I
went from running my one person solo
business with 30 clients to being the
CEO of a company that had a 100 people
in it, my output, the quality of my work
was much lower being the CEO of that
company than it was being the soloreneur
with 30 clients. I went from being like
very decisive, very sharp, doing things
very easily, almost like second nature
to being slow, uncertain, confused, and
there were times where I was like, I
don't know if I'm actually built for
this because it felt so hard. And it
wasn't until I realized this is what
growth looks like, it looks like
regression. And so anybody who tells you
that they leveled up smoothly and that
it was like so easy to like they're
lying, okay? It is not. The dip is the
price you pay for the success you get
later, but you have to be okay with the
dip. The experience of being in the dip
is awful. Which is why most people skip
through it. Because they start on
something, they say, "I don't know if
I'm made for this. I don't know if I'm
built for this. I don't know if I've got
the skill. We're all humans made of the
same shit." Seriously, like I say this
to people, I'm like, "We're made of the
same material. We're the same teddy
bear. I don't know what else to say."
You can do it. It's just that most
people correlate the dip with meaning
that they suck. The dip means that
you're new. The dip means that you're
trying. What happens after a dip? It has
to come back up. And so like new skills,
new roles, new scale, it all comes with
a performance dip. It's not failure,
it's a learning curve. And if you're not
willing to look incompetent temporarily,
then you will cap yourself permanently.
Like the willingness to suck is the
price of admission to mastery. When you
don't see that, then you risk staying in
the dip forever because you're not
actually learning. Then you're just
suffering and you're ruminating and and
you're procrastinating. But like every
dip expires. It whether you want to make
it through the dip or not, it will end.
It's not up to you. And if you're still
incompetent after six months, then maybe
the problem is not the learning curve.
Maybe it's like, oh, maybe I need a
different strategy. Maybe this doesn't
work right for my business. Then you
can, you know, take something and think
about it. Now, how do you apply this to
2026? Expect a 3 to six month learning
curve with every new challenge. Do not
expect to be good at things immediately.
Do not expect things to be easy just
because they're easy for you right now.
Your skills that you have right now are
keeping you where you're at right now.
So, you're good at them. They're also
not good enough to get you to the next
level. Now, to do this, you need to
judge yourself based on your trajectory,
not your current state. The best advice
I can give you, communicate the dip to
your team so they don't panic when you
and the rest of them are figuring it
out. I normalize this so much with my
team. We're going to suck at this first.
It won't work at first. It's probably
not going to be what you think at first.
And I feel like what I'm constantly
doing is setting the right expectations
for people because when they think
reality is here, but it ends up being
here, expectations plummet and they feel
bad. But when they expect reality to be
here and it ends up here, like, oh, that
makes sense. That's what we expect.
Number three, measure recovery with the
same vigor that you measure progress. I
used to think that like being very tired
and being fatigued was like really an
accomplishment at the end of the day and
also the price of ambition. And then I
realized tired minds make expensive
decisions. For example, I used to track
revenue down to the penny. But I would
ignore my recovery and other people's
recovery entirely. And then I started
correlating any bad decisions I made
with my state of mind. Every major
mistake I had made like mish hire, a
blown deal, it always came after like
one of a few things. Making a decision
during a meeting that was like after 10
hours of meeting, making a decision
after, you know, many days strung
together of like high stress, low sleep,
and many days strung together of like
having zero fun in my life at all. You
know, I started correlating essentially
like myself and my recovery to one of an
athlete. If I'm going to go really hard,
I have to rest really hard. And if I'm
not recovered, I can't make big calls.
If they're not recovered, they don't go
run a race. They say I need to recover
before I run another race. I'm not going
to run a marathon every other day. And
so something I've realized like the ROI
on recovery, on sleep, on rest a lot of
times is higher than the ROI on the work
ethic if you only know how to go. I
remember like the first time that I
recognized this was I had a really big
hire to make. I was really stressed
because I was covering the department
that I was trying to hire the executive
for and because of that I was taking
these interviews and I didn't feel like
I was fresh during them. Like I felt
like I was just like I was trying to
bang them out as fast as possible. Like
it was like I was taking them like you
know six, seven exec interviews a day
plus normal meetings which is like a lot
to do. I remember finally I was like oh
this is the guy. Like I think this is
the guy. But I'm pretty sure if I were
to rewind back there was like a nagging
feeling in the back of my head like I
don't know if this is the right person
but I was so tired. I was so exhausted
that I just hired the guy. Then what
happened? Hired the guy. 3 days in not
the guy. I've already rejected all the
other candidates. I've already stopped
the recruiting process. I've lost my
momentum. And I asked myself, I'm like,
what correlated to this bad decision?
And then I was like, I was really tired.
I was really tired. And when we're
tired, sometimes we can't think as
clearly as when we're well rested and
when we're like recovered. And I was
like, wow, me being tired is a threat to
my business. Every decision that you
make tired costs you twice. Which is
what I learned. Once in the bad call and
now once in the cleanup. So, something
that I have had to understand is that
like you have to match your psychology
with your biology. But I've had to learn
your biology does help determine your
judgment. When you treat recovering as a
leading indicator, you're going to
prevent a lot of expensive mistakes that
come from operating when you're really
depleted. So, something for example that
I've trained myself to do is I know that
past like 4:35, I don't make good
decisions for my business. So, when my
husband comes to me and he says, "Hey,
big decision, big thing. What do you
think?" I'm like, I'm going to have to
get back to you tomorrow. He's like,
what do you mean? I'm like, I've had
like a full day. Like, I don't I'm not
putting my best brain juice to this.
Like, I just I can feel it. I don't have
discretionary effort. And every time
he's like, okay, whatever. Like, I can
tell. Doesn't like it, but I feel good
every time because I'm like, I'm not
going to give you the answer. And then
what do I do? I write it down. I come
back to it in the morning. What do I do?
I'm like, boom, decision made. Because I
know that my best decision-m is actually
like first thing in the morning. So, I
protect that time to make sure that's
what I'm doing first thing in the
morning. But it's about optimizing your
performance. What's the right amount of
recovery to support the work that you
have to put in to achieve your goals?
Something that I used to do is I used to
factor in like all the things I have to
do to achieve my goals into my calendar.
But I put zero recovery into my
calendar. What did I change to do this?
I put recovery in my calendar just like
I plan in the things I'm going to do to
achieve my goals. Just like pro athletes
have like when they rest and recover and
they have an onseason offseason. So
should you. So how do you apply this?
One, you could like wear a device that
tracks your recovery if you feel like
doing that. Second is you could just
schedule decisions based on your energy
state, not just your time availability.
I'm not going to schedule important
meetings at the very end of the day. I'm
probably going to show up like and then
when recovery tanks, I'm going to cut
the scope before I overextend myself.
You want to develop the skill of like
catching yourself at a 6 out of 10. 6
out of 10 depleted, 6 out of 10 stress,
and then pump the brakes and be like, I
don't want to get to a 10 out of 10 cuz
guess what? Way harder to take a 10 out
of 10 to a two than a six to a two.
Number four, make expensive decisions
early to buy back time later. You think
that you're saving cash, but you're
actually spending time. The most
expensive currency that there is is
time. See, I used to cheap out on hires
and investments because like I wanted to
be scrappy. I thought that I was saving
money and I was like being a responsible
founder. But all that did was cost me
years. And so every time I said like,
"Oh, we're not ready for that yet. We're
not ready for someone that big yet.
We're not ready for that investment
yet." I was just delaying getting big.
So now what I ask myself, what's the
decision I'll make in 12 months? Let me
b make it today and I will buy myself
back that year because time is the only
asset that you can't get back. And so
you need to stop trading it for dollars
because you can always make more money
but you cannot make more time in your
life. So a great example of this is you
know about 18 months ago in my business
I was like I need to hire some
executives. So I hired three executives
but I actually needed like eight
executives. Now why didn't I hire eight?
I was like oh my gosh that's very
expensive. executives are super
expensive. Um, it's going to take so
much time. I don't think we need it. And
now looking at how much growth I had
with three, I can't help but think how
much time I lost by not hiring the other
five then. How much growth I lost by
consequence. If I had just said, I'm
going to hire eight. I think I would
have probably grown my business by 40%
more last year. So now I'll capitalize
on that next year. But now anytime I'm
thinking, oh, maybe in a year I should
get this, I'm like, but why not now? Why
not open up that second HQ now? Why not
expand internationally? Now, there's
cost and then there's opportunity cost.
And you have to ask yourself, which
one's going to cost you more? It's going
to cost hard dollars. But say you hire
that executive that can double your
revenue. Well, then not hiring them
costs you your revenue. So, you have to
think in terms of that rather than in
terms of like, oh, I'm putting up too
much costs right now to, you know,
initiate this growth. Most people
optimize for cheap in the short term but
then expensive in the long term because
they have lost the opportunity and they
delay those hard calls and very
expensive decisions until they become
like a crisis. And what I've learned is
like every delayed decision compounds in
cost financially, emotionally,
strategically. And so like reversing
this pattern, you frontload the pain and
the cost, but you backload all the
growth and the freedom. Now I would say
don't just throw money at problems
without understanding what you're
buying. you know, expensive decisions
only work if they're the right
decisions. But also avoid using this to
justify reckless spending because
there's a difference between like
strategic investment and like waste.
Like notice I said like hiring big
executives, opening up another
headquarters. Like dude, those are
things that like plow a business
forward. I'm not talking about like
buying cool tables and desks for my
office. I'm thinking about things that
move the needle. You only have so much
time and money that you can invest in
things. Make sure it's on the things
that give you the biggest bang for your
buck. So, like early in my career when I
was starting, I'm not going to go out
and like pay someone to make this like
super fancy website. I'm going to pay
somebody to teach me how to make a sale,
how to run an ad. I'm going to invest in
my skills to learn because those are
going to compound more than that like
fancy looking website. Now, how do you
apply this? This might mean that you
might need to hire that, you know,
senior person before you think you need
them. You might need to fire somebody
you're misaligned with right now, not 6
months from now. Or you might need to
invest in like a new office or new
infrastructure, a new system before it
becomes urgent later on. Number five,
build systems that work when you don't.
The season that I made the most amount
of money in my business is when my team
stopped checking with me before making
decisions. Okay? Like the best quarter
that I ever had, I was the least
involved I've ever been. I had finally
built something that could run without
me. And that is when I knew that we had
made it. Not because I was essential,
but because I was optional. Most
founders optimize to be needed. You want
to optimize for zero. This is something
I was literally talking about with my
husband last night. We were talking
about every time someone brings
something to me and they're like, "How
about we do this to grow the company?"
If it involves me or one of the key
people, I'm just like, "No, no, no."
Why? Optimize to be irrelevant. Optimize
for the most scarce resources in the
company to be the most irrelevant in the
ways that grow the company. So for me,
when my team stops checking with me
before they make decisions, I know that
I have built the right thing. I'm trying
to build a company, not a job that
involves Leila. So an example like for a
lot of founders is they're like, "Hey,
I'm thinking of this new product."
You're like, I want to build a business.
Well, what am I really good at? Do you
want to build something based on your
strengths, or do you want to build
something based on the strengths of a
team that you can assemble? It's a very
different kind of thinking. Now, it
doesn't mean that you should know
nothing about it, but it does mean that
it's more important that something be
able to grow and scale without you
needing to tend to it than it is that
you should be tending to something
because you're needed to make it work.
And a lot of people, it's like they
cannot separate themselves from their
business, which makes this the difficult
part. So, every time they want to
increase revenue or every time they want
to expand, a good one is like they're
like, "How can I use more of my time to
grow the business?" I would like to know
how to add 10 million in revenue with
zero of my time next year. Wouldn't you?
Like, I can't tell you how many people
come to me and they're like, "How do I
grow my business next year? Here's what
I'm thinking I'm going to do. I'm going
to do this. I'm going to start here. I'm
going to invest my time in this. I'm
going to" And I'm like, "Yeah, all I
heard is that you're a bottleneck."
Optimize for founder at level zero. How
do you double your business without
doing anything? Because you're the
bottleneck. And if you build your
business based on the bottleneck, the
moment your business needs you to
function is the moment it stops scaling.
And so so many people set them up for
failure from the get-go because they've
already done this. Whereas if you have
systems, right, which are like
intentional decisions you've made ahead
of time by other people, then then you
can have things grow without them
falling apart if you're not involved.
And your value to the business shifts
from you being an execution to the
architect of the business. Now, I would
say this. You want to avoid building
systems that require perfect conditions
to function, right? Like if it only
works when all the stars are aligned,
then the moon is bright and all the like
then it doesn't actually work. But you
also want to avoid creating systems so
rigid that they can't adapt when reality
changes because that doesn't work
either. So, how do you actually do this?
Super simple. Document decisions so they
can be made without you. What are the
decisions that you make right now? Who
else can make them? And what framework
should they follow to think about how to
make a good one? Give them three steps.
Here's the three things I ask myself
when I make this decision. Start asking
yourself those. How do I make those
decisions? People like, "Ah, nobody can
hire people like me." And they probably
could if you taught them. What questions
do you ask yourself when you hire
people? Nobody can build a product like
me. What What questions do you ask when
thinking about what product? Take a
second, build some awareness in your
loop. And then what will happen if you
do this is that that feedback loop
solves problems, grows the company, and
catches problems before they ever reach
your desk. And so the goal is to create
a system where it makes you unnecessary.
The more necessary you are to the things
that help you achieve your goals, the
harder it's going to be to achieve
really big ones. So now that you know
how to make 2026 your best year yet, it
can be just as important to know what
can quietly destroy that progress. So,
watch this next video where I will show
you the nine things guaranteed to ruin
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