0:02 2026 can be the best year of your life,
0:04 but only if you start preparing now. At
0:07 22, I was broke. I was super lost, and I
0:08 was terrified that I was never going to
0:10 figure out what I need to do. But now, I
0:11 run a multi-million dollar business. And
0:14 I feel like every new year is a
0:15 basically completely different life for
0:18 me. And if you can actually apply these
0:20 five principles, then you can make 2026
0:21 one of the best years of your life. And
0:23 I want to help you do it. Number one,
0:25 fire yourself from jobs you're good at.
0:28 Okay? The biggest threat to your future
0:29 is actually not your weaknesses. It is
0:31 your competence. It's what you're good
0:32 at right now. So when I had my first
0:34 company, this is about 10 years ago, I
0:36 had been in sales my entire career. And
0:38 so at my company, when we stand up the
0:40 company, I'm selling people in the
0:41 programs. And so I was the best
0:43 salesperson that we had. So I stopped
0:45 selling. So it felt like when I did
0:46 that, people would be like, "Why would
0:48 you do that? That's like the worst thing
0:49 you could do cuz it feels like cutting
0:50 off your right hand when you're
0:52 right-handed." But the company didn't
0:54 need another great salesperson. It
0:56 needed somebody who could build a team
0:58 of them. And so what I had to do and
0:59 what I've continued to do to build a
1:01 company, I had to get bad at something.
1:04 I had to be okay being bad at something
1:06 new to become valuable in a new way.
1:08 Something I talk to people about,
1:09 entrepreneurs especially time and time
1:11 again, who you are today and all the
1:12 things that you're so amazing at, all
1:14 the things that you're great at are all
1:15 the reasons why you're not going to be
1:16 able to get to the next level. And it's
1:18 like the hardest thing to hear because
1:19 it's like you being really good at
1:20 sales, you being really good at customer
1:21 service, you being really good at
1:23 building the product. Those become the
1:26 reasons why you're not able to build a
1:27 bigger company, not able to build a
1:29 bigger business, and not able to attract
1:30 a better team. And so what growth
1:33 requires in anything is it requires
1:36 trading mastery for incompetence. You
1:37 feel like, well, now that I've mastered
1:39 this thing, I'm done and like I should
1:40 just keep mastering it until I keep
1:42 getting better. But the reality is that
1:44 the next skill that comes once you've
1:46 mastered something is not more of
1:47 mastery. There's nothing more there.
1:49 It's the top. It's getting bad at the
1:51 new thing and then mastering that one
1:53 until you hit the next ceiling. Every
1:55 new level is going to demand a different
1:56 version of you, which means that you
1:58 have to kill the old one that you're
2:00 verying proud of and really good at. So
2:02 in business, for example, a lot of the
2:03 times people are like, I'm going to
2:04 delegate all the stuff that I'm bad at
2:06 and hate. And that's a great way to
2:08 start. In fact, that's how you usually
2:10 should start. But that is not how you're
2:12 going to keep growing. It is how you
2:14 will maximize the current stage you're
2:16 in. But it's not going to get you to the
2:18 next stage. In fact, what gets you to
2:19 the next stage is outsourcing the things
2:22 that you're really good at. The goal is
2:24 temporary regression in service of a
2:26 long-term expansion. Not permanent
2:29 mediocrity, right? Just temporary
2:31 mediocrity, knowing that it's going to
2:33 lead to your long-term goal. oftentimes
2:35 when you're doing bodybuilding, which is
2:36 something I used to do. And it's like
2:38 I'm really good at dieting. And so, for
2:40 example, for me, it's like I spent years
2:41 losing weight. And then what I realized
2:43 is that the skill of losing weight
2:45 actually was the opposite skill for when
2:46 I wanted to learn how to build muscle.
2:48 When you're losing weight, I got really
2:50 good at that. I knew how to be hungry. I
2:51 was okay with being hungry. I knew how
2:52 to eat less. I knew how to count my
2:54 calories. I knew how to walk a ton. I
2:56 knew how to do cardio. I knew how to do
2:58 all these things. To build muscle, I
2:59 actually had to be full more. I actually
3:02 had to eat more food. I had to learn how
3:04 to pack food with me so I wouldn't skip
3:05 meals. It's not that they were in
3:07 contrast with each other and not getting
3:08 me to my long-term goals. It's that this
3:10 one had to come before this one for me.
3:12 This one I lost weight and then I said,
3:13 "I want to put on muscle." Me learning
3:15 more and mastering how to lose weight
3:17 was not going to help me or transfer
3:19 over to me learning how to build muscle.
3:21 The same goes for business, for example.
3:23 It's like, okay, me learning how to run
3:26 a team of 10 and be like the head
3:28 salesperson, the head CS person, take
3:30 all the escalations and work 14 hours a
3:33 day to run a $10 million business is
3:35 actually the opposite skill I need of
3:36 the person that runs a hundred million
3:38 business because 100 million I can't do
3:40 any of these things. I have to learn how
3:41 to not be a salesperson, not be a CS
3:44 person, not take any escalations, and
3:46 not work 14 hours a day. So, you see
3:47 what I'm saying? The things that have
3:49 made you so valuable for where you're at
3:50 in your life right now are often the
3:51 very things that will make you
3:53 invaluable in the next era of your life.
3:55 Now, here's what you can do. List what
3:56 you're absolutely best at and then
3:59 delegate it entirely. Take on roles
4:01 where you will be the worst person at
4:03 them and then get comfortable being
4:05 terrible at something that really
4:06 matters to your long-term goal. Me
4:08 learning how to unlearn all these things
4:10 that got me to one level and learning
4:12 how to get to the next level, it's a
4:13 completely different skill. I realized
4:16 about a year ago a skill that got me to
4:17 a hundred million dollar company was
4:19 that when there was a huge big problem
4:21 with a department I would go in I would
4:23 fix it and I would you know tie a little
4:24 bow on it and I'd replace somebody in
4:27 there and then I said does Ila running a
4:29 billion dollar and$10 billion company
4:31 does she jump into a department no she
4:32 would say I'm going to hire the person
4:35 to go do it even though I could do it my
4:37 goal now and what's more important to my
4:39 growth is me focusing on the long-term
4:40 plan there are so few things that are
4:42 short-term in my company that are now
4:43 more important than me focusing on the
4:45 long-term plan. So, I can't react like
4:46 that anymore. So, then the skill that
4:48 got me to a very large company of being
4:50 able to jump in and turn around a very
4:51 important department is now the very
4:53 skill that prevent me from having a
4:54 bigger company. So, I have to trade the
4:56 skill. I now have to have the skill of
4:57 the moment that happens, I have to go
4:58 recruit somebody. So, now the skill of
5:01 recruiting executives and CEOs on a
5:03 regular continuous basis is more
5:05 important than the skill of being able
5:06 to jump in and fix something. Doing
5:08 becomes less valuable than thinking.
5:10 Different skills. Number two, normalize
5:13 regressing to progress if you can't
5:16 handle looking dumb. Do not complain
5:18 about being average at something. When I
5:21 went from running my one person solo
5:24 business with 30 clients to being the
5:25 CEO of a company that had a 100 people
5:28 in it, my output, the quality of my work
5:30 was much lower being the CEO of that
5:33 company than it was being the soloreneur
5:34 with 30 clients. I went from being like
5:37 very decisive, very sharp, doing things
5:39 very easily, almost like second nature
5:42 to being slow, uncertain, confused, and
5:43 there were times where I was like, I
5:44 don't know if I'm actually built for
5:46 this because it felt so hard. And it
5:48 wasn't until I realized this is what
5:49 growth looks like, it looks like
5:51 regression. And so anybody who tells you
5:53 that they leveled up smoothly and that
5:55 it was like so easy to like they're
5:58 lying, okay? It is not. The dip is the
6:00 price you pay for the success you get
6:01 later, but you have to be okay with the
6:04 dip. The experience of being in the dip
6:06 is awful. Which is why most people skip
6:07 through it. Because they start on
6:08 something, they say, "I don't know if
6:09 I'm made for this. I don't know if I'm
6:10 built for this. I don't know if I've got
6:12 the skill. We're all humans made of the
6:13 same shit." Seriously, like I say this
6:14 to people, I'm like, "We're made of the
6:15 same material. We're the same teddy
6:17 bear. I don't know what else to say."
6:18 You can do it. It's just that most
6:21 people correlate the dip with meaning
6:23 that they suck. The dip means that
6:25 you're new. The dip means that you're
6:27 trying. What happens after a dip? It has
6:29 to come back up. And so like new skills,
6:31 new roles, new scale, it all comes with
6:33 a performance dip. It's not failure,
6:34 it's a learning curve. And if you're not
6:36 willing to look incompetent temporarily,
6:38 then you will cap yourself permanently.
6:40 Like the willingness to suck is the
6:42 price of admission to mastery. When you
6:44 don't see that, then you risk staying in
6:45 the dip forever because you're not
6:47 actually learning. Then you're just
6:48 suffering and you're ruminating and and
6:50 you're procrastinating. But like every
6:53 dip expires. It whether you want to make
6:55 it through the dip or not, it will end.
6:57 It's not up to you. And if you're still
6:59 incompetent after six months, then maybe
7:00 the problem is not the learning curve.
7:01 Maybe it's like, oh, maybe I need a
7:02 different strategy. Maybe this doesn't
7:03 work right for my business. Then you
7:04 can, you know, take something and think
7:06 about it. Now, how do you apply this to
7:10 2026? Expect a 3 to six month learning
7:12 curve with every new challenge. Do not
7:13 expect to be good at things immediately.
7:15 Do not expect things to be easy just
7:17 because they're easy for you right now.
7:18 Your skills that you have right now are
7:19 keeping you where you're at right now.
7:21 So, you're good at them. They're also
7:22 not good enough to get you to the next
7:24 level. Now, to do this, you need to
7:26 judge yourself based on your trajectory,
7:28 not your current state. The best advice
7:30 I can give you, communicate the dip to
7:32 your team so they don't panic when you
7:34 and the rest of them are figuring it
7:35 out. I normalize this so much with my
7:37 team. We're going to suck at this first.
7:38 It won't work at first. It's probably
7:40 not going to be what you think at first.
7:41 And I feel like what I'm constantly
7:42 doing is setting the right expectations
7:44 for people because when they think
7:45 reality is here, but it ends up being
7:48 here, expectations plummet and they feel
7:49 bad. But when they expect reality to be
7:51 here and it ends up here, like, oh, that
7:53 makes sense. That's what we expect.
7:55 Number three, measure recovery with the
7:57 same vigor that you measure progress. I
7:59 used to think that like being very tired
8:01 and being fatigued was like really an
8:02 accomplishment at the end of the day and
8:04 also the price of ambition. And then I
8:07 realized tired minds make expensive
8:09 decisions. For example, I used to track
8:11 revenue down to the penny. But I would
8:13 ignore my recovery and other people's
8:15 recovery entirely. And then I started
8:18 correlating any bad decisions I made
8:20 with my state of mind. Every major
8:22 mistake I had made like mish hire, a
8:25 blown deal, it always came after like
8:26 one of a few things. Making a decision
8:28 during a meeting that was like after 10
8:29 hours of meeting, making a decision
8:32 after, you know, many days strung
8:33 together of like high stress, low sleep,
8:35 and many days strung together of like
8:37 having zero fun in my life at all. You
8:38 know, I started correlating essentially
8:40 like myself and my recovery to one of an
8:42 athlete. If I'm going to go really hard,
8:44 I have to rest really hard. And if I'm
8:46 not recovered, I can't make big calls.
8:47 If they're not recovered, they don't go
8:49 run a race. They say I need to recover
8:50 before I run another race. I'm not going
8:52 to run a marathon every other day. And
8:54 so something I've realized like the ROI
8:57 on recovery, on sleep, on rest a lot of
9:00 times is higher than the ROI on the work
9:03 ethic if you only know how to go. I
9:04 remember like the first time that I
9:06 recognized this was I had a really big
9:08 hire to make. I was really stressed
9:10 because I was covering the department
9:12 that I was trying to hire the executive
9:14 for and because of that I was taking
9:15 these interviews and I didn't feel like
9:17 I was fresh during them. Like I felt
9:18 like I was just like I was trying to
9:19 bang them out as fast as possible. Like
9:21 it was like I was taking them like you
9:23 know six, seven exec interviews a day
9:25 plus normal meetings which is like a lot
9:27 to do. I remember finally I was like oh
9:28 this is the guy. Like I think this is
9:30 the guy. But I'm pretty sure if I were
9:32 to rewind back there was like a nagging
9:33 feeling in the back of my head like I
9:34 don't know if this is the right person
9:37 but I was so tired. I was so exhausted
9:39 that I just hired the guy. Then what
9:41 happened? Hired the guy. 3 days in not
9:43 the guy. I've already rejected all the
9:45 other candidates. I've already stopped
9:46 the recruiting process. I've lost my
9:48 momentum. And I asked myself, I'm like,
9:50 what correlated to this bad decision?
9:55 And then I was like, I was really tired.
9:57 I was really tired. And when we're
9:59 tired, sometimes we can't think as
10:00 clearly as when we're well rested and
10:02 when we're like recovered. And I was
10:03 like, wow, me being tired is a threat to
10:06 my business. Every decision that you
10:08 make tired costs you twice. Which is
10:10 what I learned. Once in the bad call and
10:12 now once in the cleanup. So, something
10:14 that I have had to understand is that
10:16 like you have to match your psychology
10:18 with your biology. But I've had to learn
10:20 your biology does help determine your
10:22 judgment. When you treat recovering as a
10:24 leading indicator, you're going to
10:26 prevent a lot of expensive mistakes that
10:27 come from operating when you're really
10:28 depleted. So, something for example that
10:32 I've trained myself to do is I know that
10:35 past like 4:35, I don't make good
10:36 decisions for my business. So, when my
10:39 husband comes to me and he says, "Hey,
10:40 big decision, big thing. What do you
10:42 think?" I'm like, I'm going to have to
10:45 get back to you tomorrow. He's like,
10:46 what do you mean? I'm like, I've had
10:48 like a full day. Like, I don't I'm not
10:49 putting my best brain juice to this.
10:50 Like, I just I can feel it. I don't have
10:52 discretionary effort. And every time
10:53 he's like, okay, whatever. Like, I can
10:55 tell. Doesn't like it, but I feel good
10:56 every time because I'm like, I'm not
10:58 going to give you the answer. And then
10:59 what do I do? I write it down. I come
11:00 back to it in the morning. What do I do?
11:02 I'm like, boom, decision made. Because I
11:03 know that my best decision-m is actually
11:05 like first thing in the morning. So, I
11:06 protect that time to make sure that's
11:06 what I'm doing first thing in the
11:08 morning. But it's about optimizing your
11:10 performance. What's the right amount of
11:13 recovery to support the work that you
11:15 have to put in to achieve your goals?
11:16 Something that I used to do is I used to
11:17 factor in like all the things I have to
11:19 do to achieve my goals into my calendar.
11:20 But I put zero recovery into my
11:22 calendar. What did I change to do this?
11:24 I put recovery in my calendar just like
11:26 I plan in the things I'm going to do to
11:28 achieve my goals. Just like pro athletes
11:30 have like when they rest and recover and
11:31 they have an onseason offseason. So
11:33 should you. So how do you apply this?
11:34 One, you could like wear a device that
11:36 tracks your recovery if you feel like
11:37 doing that. Second is you could just
11:40 schedule decisions based on your energy
11:42 state, not just your time availability.
11:43 I'm not going to schedule important
11:45 meetings at the very end of the day. I'm
11:46 probably going to show up like and then
11:49 when recovery tanks, I'm going to cut
11:52 the scope before I overextend myself.
11:53 You want to develop the skill of like
11:55 catching yourself at a 6 out of 10. 6
11:57 out of 10 depleted, 6 out of 10 stress,
12:00 and then pump the brakes and be like, I
12:01 don't want to get to a 10 out of 10 cuz
12:03 guess what? Way harder to take a 10 out
12:05 of 10 to a two than a six to a two.
12:07 Number four, make expensive decisions
12:10 early to buy back time later. You think
12:12 that you're saving cash, but you're
12:15 actually spending time. The most
12:17 expensive currency that there is is
12:20 time. See, I used to cheap out on hires
12:21 and investments because like I wanted to
12:23 be scrappy. I thought that I was saving
12:24 money and I was like being a responsible
12:27 founder. But all that did was cost me
12:29 years. And so every time I said like,
12:30 "Oh, we're not ready for that yet. We're
12:32 not ready for someone that big yet.
12:33 We're not ready for that investment
12:35 yet." I was just delaying getting big.
12:37 So now what I ask myself, what's the
12:40 decision I'll make in 12 months? Let me
12:42 b make it today and I will buy myself
12:44 back that year because time is the only
12:46 asset that you can't get back. And so
12:47 you need to stop trading it for dollars
12:49 because you can always make more money
12:50 but you cannot make more time in your
12:52 life. So a great example of this is you
12:54 know about 18 months ago in my business
12:55 I was like I need to hire some
12:57 executives. So I hired three executives
12:59 but I actually needed like eight
13:01 executives. Now why didn't I hire eight?
13:02 I was like oh my gosh that's very
13:04 expensive. executives are super
13:05 expensive. Um, it's going to take so
13:07 much time. I don't think we need it. And
13:09 now looking at how much growth I had
13:12 with three, I can't help but think how
13:14 much time I lost by not hiring the other
13:16 five then. How much growth I lost by
13:18 consequence. If I had just said, I'm
13:20 going to hire eight. I think I would
13:22 have probably grown my business by 40%
13:23 more last year. So now I'll capitalize
13:26 on that next year. But now anytime I'm
13:28 thinking, oh, maybe in a year I should
13:30 get this, I'm like, but why not now? Why
13:32 not open up that second HQ now? Why not
13:34 expand internationally? Now, there's
13:36 cost and then there's opportunity cost.
13:38 And you have to ask yourself, which
13:39 one's going to cost you more? It's going
13:42 to cost hard dollars. But say you hire
13:43 that executive that can double your
13:45 revenue. Well, then not hiring them
13:48 costs you your revenue. So, you have to
13:50 think in terms of that rather than in
13:52 terms of like, oh, I'm putting up too
13:54 much costs right now to, you know,
13:56 initiate this growth. Most people
13:58 optimize for cheap in the short term but
13:59 then expensive in the long term because
14:01 they have lost the opportunity and they
14:03 delay those hard calls and very
14:04 expensive decisions until they become
14:06 like a crisis. And what I've learned is
14:09 like every delayed decision compounds in
14:12 cost financially, emotionally,
14:14 strategically. And so like reversing
14:16 this pattern, you frontload the pain and
14:17 the cost, but you backload all the
14:20 growth and the freedom. Now I would say
14:22 don't just throw money at problems
14:23 without understanding what you're
14:25 buying. you know, expensive decisions
14:26 only work if they're the right
14:29 decisions. But also avoid using this to
14:31 justify reckless spending because
14:32 there's a difference between like
14:35 strategic investment and like waste.
14:36 Like notice I said like hiring big
14:38 executives, opening up another
14:39 headquarters. Like dude, those are
14:41 things that like plow a business
14:42 forward. I'm not talking about like
14:44 buying cool tables and desks for my
14:45 office. I'm thinking about things that
14:47 move the needle. You only have so much
14:49 time and money that you can invest in
14:50 things. Make sure it's on the things
14:51 that give you the biggest bang for your
14:53 buck. So, like early in my career when I
14:55 was starting, I'm not going to go out
14:56 and like pay someone to make this like
14:58 super fancy website. I'm going to pay
15:00 somebody to teach me how to make a sale,
15:02 how to run an ad. I'm going to invest in
15:03 my skills to learn because those are
15:05 going to compound more than that like
15:06 fancy looking website. Now, how do you
15:08 apply this? This might mean that you
15:09 might need to hire that, you know,
15:11 senior person before you think you need
15:12 them. You might need to fire somebody
15:14 you're misaligned with right now, not 6
15:16 months from now. Or you might need to
15:18 invest in like a new office or new
15:19 infrastructure, a new system before it
15:21 becomes urgent later on. Number five,
15:23 build systems that work when you don't.
15:25 The season that I made the most amount
15:27 of money in my business is when my team
15:28 stopped checking with me before making
15:30 decisions. Okay? Like the best quarter
15:32 that I ever had, I was the least
15:33 involved I've ever been. I had finally
15:35 built something that could run without
15:37 me. And that is when I knew that we had
15:40 made it. Not because I was essential,
15:42 but because I was optional. Most
15:44 founders optimize to be needed. You want
15:46 to optimize for zero. This is something
15:48 I was literally talking about with my
15:49 husband last night. We were talking
15:50 about every time someone brings
15:51 something to me and they're like, "How
15:53 about we do this to grow the company?"
15:55 If it involves me or one of the key
15:57 people, I'm just like, "No, no, no."
16:00 Why? Optimize to be irrelevant. Optimize
16:02 for the most scarce resources in the
16:04 company to be the most irrelevant in the
16:06 ways that grow the company. So for me,
16:08 when my team stops checking with me
16:10 before they make decisions, I know that
16:12 I have built the right thing. I'm trying
16:14 to build a company, not a job that
16:16 involves Leila. So an example like for a
16:17 lot of founders is they're like, "Hey,
16:18 I'm thinking of this new product."
16:19 You're like, I want to build a business.
16:21 Well, what am I really good at? Do you
16:22 want to build something based on your
16:24 strengths, or do you want to build
16:25 something based on the strengths of a
16:27 team that you can assemble? It's a very
16:28 different kind of thinking. Now, it
16:29 doesn't mean that you should know
16:30 nothing about it, but it does mean that
16:32 it's more important that something be
16:34 able to grow and scale without you
16:36 needing to tend to it than it is that
16:37 you should be tending to something
16:39 because you're needed to make it work.
16:40 And a lot of people, it's like they
16:42 cannot separate themselves from their
16:44 business, which makes this the difficult
16:46 part. So, every time they want to
16:47 increase revenue or every time they want
16:48 to expand, a good one is like they're
16:51 like, "How can I use more of my time to
16:52 grow the business?" I would like to know
16:54 how to add 10 million in revenue with
16:56 zero of my time next year. Wouldn't you?
16:57 Like, I can't tell you how many people
16:58 come to me and they're like, "How do I
16:59 grow my business next year? Here's what
17:00 I'm thinking I'm going to do. I'm going
17:02 to do this. I'm going to start here. I'm
17:03 going to invest my time in this. I'm
17:04 going to" And I'm like, "Yeah, all I
17:06 heard is that you're a bottleneck."
17:09 Optimize for founder at level zero. How
17:11 do you double your business without
17:13 doing anything? Because you're the
17:14 bottleneck. And if you build your
17:16 business based on the bottleneck, the
17:18 moment your business needs you to
17:20 function is the moment it stops scaling.
17:22 And so so many people set them up for
17:23 failure from the get-go because they've
17:25 already done this. Whereas if you have
17:27 systems, right, which are like
17:28 intentional decisions you've made ahead
17:31 of time by other people, then then you
17:32 can have things grow without them
17:33 falling apart if you're not involved.
17:36 And your value to the business shifts
17:38 from you being an execution to the
17:39 architect of the business. Now, I would
17:41 say this. You want to avoid building
17:43 systems that require perfect conditions
17:44 to function, right? Like if it only
17:46 works when all the stars are aligned,
17:47 then the moon is bright and all the like
17:49 then it doesn't actually work. But you
17:51 also want to avoid creating systems so
17:52 rigid that they can't adapt when reality
17:54 changes because that doesn't work
17:55 either. So, how do you actually do this?
17:59 Super simple. Document decisions so they
18:00 can be made without you. What are the
18:02 decisions that you make right now? Who
18:04 else can make them? And what framework
18:05 should they follow to think about how to
18:07 make a good one? Give them three steps.
18:09 Here's the three things I ask myself
18:11 when I make this decision. Start asking
18:12 yourself those. How do I make those
18:14 decisions? People like, "Ah, nobody can
18:15 hire people like me." And they probably
18:17 could if you taught them. What questions
18:19 do you ask yourself when you hire
18:20 people? Nobody can build a product like
18:22 me. What What questions do you ask when
18:24 thinking about what product? Take a
18:25 second, build some awareness in your
18:27 loop. And then what will happen if you
18:30 do this is that that feedback loop
18:32 solves problems, grows the company, and
18:34 catches problems before they ever reach
18:36 your desk. And so the goal is to create
18:39 a system where it makes you unnecessary.
18:41 The more necessary you are to the things
18:42 that help you achieve your goals, the
18:43 harder it's going to be to achieve
18:45 really big ones. So now that you know
18:47 how to make 2026 your best year yet, it
18:49 can be just as important to know what
18:52 can quietly destroy that progress. So,
18:53 watch this next video where I will show
18:56 you the nine things guaranteed to ruin
