What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, And That’s the Point

Let me tell you about someone I've been working with. We'll call him Daniel

Daniel co-founded a successful Fintech startup in his late twenties. Brilliant coder. Obsessive about design. Fast thinker. Faster builder. In the early days, Daniel was the business. He was the product architect, the problem solver, the pitch man, and often, the most talented person in the room.

But now, years later, things are different. The company is growing. The problems are bigger. The stakes are higher. And Daniel? He’s stuck between two versions of himself:

The one who built the thing. And the one who needs to grow it.

The Real Reason Founders Plateau

• It’s easy to blame external factors when growth slows. Funding cycles, talent shortages, market timing.
• But for Daniel, the real bottleneck wasn’t outside the business.
• It was inside his own head.

His self-talk was brutal:

“I’m not a ‘real’ CEO.” “I’m terrible at managing people.” “I just need to grind harder until things calm down.”

The irony? He was the CEO. He was managing a team. He was grinding and nothing was calming down.

That’s when Daniel realized something uncomfortable but liberating. He didn’t need to become someone else entirely. But he couldn’t keep trying to scale a company with the same mindset that built it.

Shift One: Stop Clinging to the Past Version of Yourself

In the early days, Daniel’s superpower was doing: Shipping fast. Solving problems in real time. Wearing every hat. Thriving under pressure.

But now? That strength had become a liability.

He was:

• Solving problems others should own
• Jumping into code reviews instead of hiring leaders
• Avoiding strategic conversations because they didn’t offer the same quick dopamine hit as shipping features

The first shift? Letting go of the belief that hustle equals value.

Daniel had to ask a bigger question:

“What does my future business need me to become?”

It wasn’t about abandoning his strengths. It was about evolving them.

Try this: Write a letter from your future self. Describe how you lead. What you’ve stopped doing. What you’ve finally started owning. Then use it as a guide for your next 90 days.

Shift Two: Your Self-Talk Is the Software Running the Company

Daniel didn’t just have imposter syndrome. He had an inner critic that sounded like a VC with a grudge.

• He second-guessed his decisions
• He avoided hard conversations
• He micromanaged his co-founder
• He said yes to things he didn’t believe in

All because he didn’t want to let people down. The breakthrough came when he saw the loop:

“I’m not ready to lead at this level.” became “I’ll avoid the work that requires me to show up differently.” which let do “My team doesn’t trust me to lead.” which confirmed “I’m not ready to lead at this level.”

Sound familiar?

Once he saw it, he could interrupt it. Recode the mental script. Create space for a new identity.

Try this: Every time your inner critic speaks up, write it down. Then write what a trusted mentor would say instead. Train your brain to upgrade its language before you upgrade your org chart.

Shift Three: Organizational Growth Requires Personal Expansion

Daniel thought scaling meant better systems, clearer OKRs, a sharper pitch deck. It does.          

But what it really means is learning to lead in a new way. Letting go of certainty. Delegating even when it’s uncomfortable. Setting boundaries, especially with yourself.

When Daniel started growing as a person, the business followed.

• He hired a COO — and actually let them lead
• He started weekly team reflections focused on culture, not KPIs
• He spent Fridays thinking about the future, not reacting to fires

It was awkward at first. But it was real and it unlocked something deeper in the team.

People didn’t just trust him more. They became more trusting of themselves.

Try this: Block one hour this week. Don’t work on the business. Reflect on how you’ve changed since founding it. What’s grown? What’s stuck? Where does your next level begin?

Final Thought: Becoming Is the Real Work

Daniel’s not done growing. He’s not perfect. But he’s honest now, in a way that matters.

He’s no longer pretending he can outrun his limitations. No longer using productivity to avoid personal growth. No longer clinging to the myth that he has to be the same person who started the business to finish building it.

Here’s the truth:

You can’t lead transformation in your company if you’re afraid of it in yourself.

What got you here was courage. What gets you there is evolution and it starts by recognizing that moving from what you used to be to what you can become is not a threat.

It’s the whole point.

‍The best founders aren’t just building companies. They’re building themselves.

‍

In all that we do, let us seek wisdom, discipline, courage & justice.

‍