There's a version of high-performance culture that looks great on a conference stage and destroys teams in practice. The organizations that sustain it have built something different: a culture where people compete against their own previous best — not each other, not the leaderboard — and where that standard never gets comfortable.

In October 2022, I sat in my SUV, drowning in “good” opportunities—podcasts, coffee meetings, client calls—while my most important goals stalled. I’d been saying yes to everything good... and missing what was great. This post is your reminder (and roadmap) to stop scattering your energy. Because the real enemy of greatness? It’s not failure. It’s distraction disguised as “good.”