I was really trying hard to maintain a format I found more “professional,” more pleasing to a board or classroom. Although the content drives me, trying to plug it into that format/box was a little boring to write, which I have to believe made it boring to read, so I changed up and went back to how I write, how I think, how I talk.
I’m in the garage again, where I like to write the most, music bleeding into the quiet.
Kids are in bed, the baby’s asleep, the dogs finally stopped barking at nothing.
Screen’s glowing like it has since 2009.
Same chair.
Same truth.
Thinking about some things that have been happening and how I responded. I saw a leadership vacuum and it was my fault. I dont micromanage. Having to do it is challenging and I dont see much benefit in it. I think all it does is slowly grind energy into dust so I really repel the need, even if it might be needed. So I hit the pause button and asked myself, “What can I do to fix this?”
Be of Service.
Leadership isn’t a title.
It isn’t louder voice, bigger office, or the first name on the letterhead.
It’s who shows up first and leaves last without making it a thing, and I don’t necessarily mean just who hits the clock first, but who SHOWS UP first. I learned it in a high school parking lot at 5:12 a.m., cones still wet with dew, watching the old man already there picking up trash nobody asked him to pick up.
He wasn’t the head coach.
He was the equipment guy.
But every kid on that team would’ve sprinted through a wall for him.
Not because he demanded it.
Because he served it. I learned it again years later in a gym.
New job, new title, new pressure.
First week I asked the staff, “How can I help you?”
They were young, awkwardly rolled their rolls a little.
Thought I was joking.
By week four we were sitting together mapping out new procedures.
By month three they were hitting numbers the owner never thought possible.
Not because I motivated them.
Because I served them. Leadership is just service with a bigger shadow.
The shadow falls on more people, so the service has to be cleaner.
No ego.
No scoreboard.
No “look at me carrying the team.”
Just quiet, relentless “how can I make your job easier today?” You want to lead a team, a company, a family, a locker room?
Start here:
Be the first one to grab the trash bag.
Be the last one to eat.
Ask the quietest person in the room what they think and actually shut up long enough to listen.
When something breaks, own it before anyone has to point.
When something goes right, point everywhere but yourself.
That’s it.
That’s the whole playbook. I’ve watched men with corner offices and seven-figure bonuses lose entire floors of people because they never once asked, “How can I help?”
I’ve seen JV coaches hold entire programs together because they lived that question every single day. Service isn’t soft.
It’s the hardest discipline there is.
Because it demands you kill the part of you that needs credit. But when you do?
When you finally burn that part down?
People don’t follow you.
They move mountains with you. And the shadow gets bigger.
Not because you chased it.
Because you kept serving in the dark until the light found you.
Business truth:
The market doesn’t reward titles.
It rewards leverage.
And the highest leverage on earth is a human being who feels genuinely seen, heard, and served.
Create that at scale and you don’t have employees, clients, or players.
You have a tribe that will run through fire for the mission. That’s not theory.
That’s compounding interest in human capital.
That’s how you build something that outlives you. So if you want to lead:
Stop trying to be the hero.
Start being the shield.
Start being the water bottle.
Start being the trash bag. Serve clean.
Serve quiet.
Serve relentless. The shadow takes care of itself.