Kishore Indukuri left his job at Intel to start what would become Sid’s Farm–a subscription-based dairy company now delivering pure milk and dairy products to over 30,000 families across India every day.

The thing is, when he left Intel, he wasn’t chasing revenue, scale, or massive distribution. Not yet.
He was chasing purpose.

So, he quit.
Bought 20 cows.
And started delivering milk himself.

When your purpose isn’t clear, you look to escape.
When it IS clear, you look to engage.

---

Quick Inve...

The night before a big game, I like to walk teams through a simple visualization of their gameday schedule.

Wake-up. Breakfast. Position meetings. Walk-through. The bus ride to the stadium. Getting taped. Getting dressed. Warmups. Kickoff.

I tell them to see it all in their minds eye. Every moment. Each conversation. The whole thing.

And once we finish? I invite them to do it again.
Same schedule. Same bus ride. Same warmups.

But this time, I ask them to imagine themselves showing up...

With...

There’s an old proverb:

A man is being chased by his fear.

He runs through a field. It keeps pace.
He climbs a mountain. It climbs too.
He dives into a cave. It follows, unblinking.

Eventually, he reaches a cliff. No more running.
Just two options:
Jump.
Or turn and face it.

He turns.

And something unexpected happens.
The fear stops.

It shifts.

It says, “I’m here because this moment matters. Because what’s next is bigger than you. Because your choices, your focus, your courage–they matter here....

It’s simpler to say what you’re against.
(And the quickest way to form a group.)

It’s harder to name what you’re for.
To consider that which you’re against.

 --

But, we’re wired for contrast. Aren't we?
Hot or cold. Light or dark. This or that.

That’s how I taught my kids.
This is this because it’s not that.
But eventually, it stops working.

Hot isn’t bad. Cold isn’t either.
And darkness? It has things to teach.

I often go back to this Kierkegaard line in my head:

“You label me, so you can...

AI may be the future.
But it's not how we move forward.

AI can plan your workout.
Write your outline.
Track your progress.

But sending the hard email?
Picking up the phone to apologize?
Getting back up after the loss and trying again tomorrow?

Trusting your gut. Honoring that deep desire. Risk looking foolish. Holding hope without proof.
I could go on…

These don't compute.
But they're what make us human.
And for most of us,
They're the only way forward.

What will you do today that makes no sense to...

I had coffee with my younger self this week.

He ordered a vanilla latte.
I ordered a coffee with light cream.

I asked him how things were going.
He lied and said everything was good.
Said he liked the work he was doing.
Said he could see himself doing it forever.

I told him a time would come soon,
When he’d be really honest with himself.
When he'd feel it: this season is over.
He’ll be scared to admit it. But he’ll know.

He asked, But what will I do?
How will any of this translate to something else?...

A few years ago, I worked with a football coach who did this brilliant thing.

His position group had 14 guys. Only 4 starting spots.
One week before the first game, he began a ritual.

One by one, he called guys up to the whiteboard and asked each to write their starting four—from their point of view.

Then he’d ask the room: “Anyone want to make a change?”

Once there was consensus, he’d write his own starting four.
Sometimes it matched. Sometimes it didn’t.
And they did this every single week for the ...

A mentor once told me:
We live in a society without elders.
Not without older people.
Without elders.

There’s a difference.

Age doesn’t make you wise.
And experience doesn’t make you worth following.

Wisdom comes from walking through fire–
And letting it refine you, not harden you.

We used to have more of these people.

It was the neighbor who’d been through hell and still showed up with kindness.
The mentor whose life did most of the talking.
The faith leader, coach, or teacher whose steadiness ma...

Reading won’t do it.
Another certification won’t do it.
Even clarity won’t do it.

Only action changes you.

You don’t think your way into a new identity.
You act your way there.

Because no amount of thinking creates
What one act of courage can.

Many cultures, across history, had rites of passage.
Not for ceremony.
For identity.

A moment that marked the shift from one life stage to another.
Child to adult. Outsider to insider. Observer to leader.

But today?
Most of us skip the ritual.
Even so—we still feel the shift.

A rookie walks into the locker room for the first time.
An entrepreneur signs the lease.
A new executive realizes everyone’s waiting for her call.

These are modern rites.
Unspoken. Unsanctioned.
But identity-altering.

The best ...

One of the most powerful conversations I’ve had was with a head coach a few days after an awful season.

He didn’t just lose games—he lost the fans.
The media piled on.
The stress around the program was palpable.

I remember walking into his office. We sat down.
Pleasantries, sure. But we both knew why I was there.
Not to talk about next steps.
Not off-season plans.

We talked about grief.

And let me tell you—grief is NOT a topic that comes up very often in head coach or senior leader offices.

I told him the...

Courage isn’t the absence of fear.
It’s the presence of vision.

This is one of my favorite cognitive reframes. I come back to it often—especially with clients who feel overwhelmed.

Because sometimes they’re buried in doubt.
The challenge feels too big.
The odds too narrow.
The leader above them seems impossible.
The NIL landscape is chaotic.
The timing, the market, the pressure—none of it ideal.

When these stories come up, I let them finish. I don’t rush to solve or redirect. I just listen.

I think a lot about the work people do that no one assigned.

The other day, I (Kevin) was listening to Hamilton in the car with the kids, and I couldn’t stop thinking: No one asked Lin-Manuel Miranda to write this.

He just did it.
He read a biography on vacation and followed the spark.

This morning, I was drinking coffee from Cometeer—a company that flash-freezes great coffee into little frozen pucks. It’s delicious. (They sell Intelligentsia—my favorite).

Anyway, I kept wondering: Who asked ...

You don’t pick a shirt based on who you want to become.
You pick it based on how you feel.

Cold? Grab the hoodie.
Confident? Maybe the black one.
Lazy Sunday? Hello, stretched-out tee with the mystery stain.

Shirts are for moods.
Identity is not.

The problem is, most people treat their commitments like shirts.
They wear them only when they feel like it.

But if you only write when you feel inspired...
Only lead when you feel confident...
Only train when you feel motivated...

Then your future is alw...

 You want to know a secret?

Well, it was never a secret.
But it will help you. And you’ve been looking for it in so many other places.

Here it is:

Action.

Go. Get started.
Stop waiting and start moving.

You don’t need another credential.
You don’t need another class, that book, or more research.

The clarity you seek is waiting for you in the work.

While everyone else waits for the perfect conditions, the perfect plan, the perfect moment. You can choose to start. Today.

In fact, the only ...

ONE STORY

 
(The Brooklyn Bridge. Image by Sam Amil. 2018.)

"Don’t Argue with Fear. Crush It with Proof."

THE PANIC
In May of 1883—just six days after the Brooklyn Bridge opened to the public—panic hit.

A rumor swept through the crowd: the bridge is collapsing. Chaos followed. A stampede. Twelve people were crushed to death.

Confidence in the bridge evaporated overnight. Commuters stayed away. Engineers issued statements. Experts gave reassurances. But no one believed them.

That’s when Ph...

We salute you.

You’re not crazy.
You’re not lost.
You’re just ahead.

You’re writing before the deal.
Training before the call.
Working while nobody’s watching.

People might not get it.
Not yet.
Too early. Too bold. Too much.

But that’s exactly why it matters.

You didn’t wait to be picked.
You chose yourself.
You don’t need a green light.
You’re already moving.

You’ve got vision with calluses.
Belief with receipts.
Ideas backed by motion.

The absolute moxie—
we salute you.

It’s lonely som...

Casting the vision is the easy part.
Big words. Bold dreams. Applause.

But then comes Tuesday.
Then comes complexity.
Then come the good ideas.

Not the bad ones—those are easy to spot.
Easy to decline.

The real test is this:

Can you say no to something smart?
Something profitable? Something popular?

Can you look someone important in the eye—and turn down an opportunity that would look great on paper but pull you off course?

You see—vision doesn’t vanish.
It drifts.

One well-meaning yes at ...

A question I’ve been asking clients lately:
Who are your heroes? And why?

Is it their income?
Their impact?
The way others see them?

Or is it something deeper—
The quality of their relationships?
Their courage?
Their character when no one’s watching?

We’re shaped by more than we think.
Availability bias says we gravitate toward what we see most.
Mere exposure effect says we prefer what’s familiar.
Memetic theory says we want what others want—because they want it.

Which means:
A lot of our dr...

For those of us in the storm, the fight, not quite "there" yet—but still believing.

Every pursuit has two signals: inputs and outputs.

Inputs: what you bring—time, focus, energy, intention.
Outputs: what you get—wins, revenue, recognition, results.

We obsess over outputs because they're visible and validating. They let us keep score.

But if you're in the trenches building something that matters, you already know: the scoreboard always lags behind the work.

By the time results appear, they're already h...

People don’t like it when you change lanes.

A career pivot.
A relationship shift.
Stepping away from a vice others still enjoy.

(Heaven forbid you change political parties, sports teams, or faith communities.)

Suddenly, people are uncomfortable.
Not because you’re wrong—but because you’re new.
And new requires them to adjust.

You see, we built a story around who you were.
It made sense.
It fit our world.
And, now you’ve gone off script.

But the truth is this:
Who you were isn’t going to get y...

Convention is comfortable.

It tells you to wait your turn.
Follow the proven path.
Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

Blend in, improve slightly, and repeat. It rewards predictability. It protects the system. It keeps things running—until the system stops working.

Unconvention, on the other hand, is rarely comfortable.

It’s messy.
Uncertain.
Often invisible at first.

It doesn’t wait for permission. It doesn’t ask, “What’s allowed?” It asks, “Why is this the only way?”

“What problem are we actually s...

ONE STORY

Jean-Dominique Bauby had it all.

Editor-in-chief of Elle magazine in Paris. Cultural maven. Fashionable. Connected. At 44, he’d mastered the game most of us are still trying to figure out how to play. His first book deal was just the beginning.

Then suddenly, the rules changed: A stroke.

Bauby awoke in a hospital bed—fully conscious but completely paralyzed. Locked-in syndrome trapped his sharp mind and vivid memories inside an unresponsive body. He couldn't speak, move, or even no...

Your real work begins the moment you stop asking for permission.

Let me be clear: Doing your work is not the same as going to work.

Your work is personal.
It matters more—and costs more.
It’s the thing only you can give the world.

Let me be clear again: permission is the obstacle.

It’s the invisible barrier most people never question.
We wait for someone to notice us. To pick us.
To validate our idea, our calling, our gut instinct.

But that moment rarely comes.

The truth is—and no one tell...