Taking Ownership Back (2025)

December 31, 2025

As the new year approaches, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do differently in 2026. We tend to laugh at New Year’s resolutions, especially the ones that fade after a month. But why? They started. They tried. And in business, trying is the entry fee.

Realistically most things don’t stick the first time anyway. Sometimes they take a few iterations. Sometimes they lead us somewhere else entirely. That’s what I like to use as data.

I haven’t landed on a formal resolution yet, but the reflection itself has been telling. When I look back at 2025, I can confidently say this was the year I experienced the most growth, not just financially, but personally and professionally.

My goal in 2025 was simple: to do the things I was told I couldn’t do.

Every founder has those goals. And every founder has a list of people whether it be friends, coworkers, managers, society at large, who explain why it’s not realistic. Why it’s not practical, or not the right time. Corporate America is especially good at this. It teaches us how to be useful, but not always how to be fulfilled.

At some point, I realized I had let too many outside voices cloud what I actually wanted. So, I took ownership back.

I’ve always loved to write, but for years I kept it private. Then someone told me my voice mattered, that it could actually help people. Instead of debating it, I tested the idea. Then I launched The Idea Library, a platform where I write openly about business, leadership, and growth. It’s now being read internationally, something I never would have discovered without starting.

I’ve also painted my entire life. I was told I’d never be an artist. In 2025, I decided that wasn’t a verdict, it was an opinion. I launched Pigment and Pulse and began turning a lifelong passion into a real business experiment.

What surprised me was what happened once I put them into the world.

Taking ownership led to conversations I never would have had otherwise. People reached out to share similar doubts, stalled ideas, and the quiet fear of starting. Some said the words helped them feel less alone. Others said it gave them the push they needed to finally try something they’d been sitting on for years.

From a consulting perspective, this pattern shows up constantly. Organizations don’t stall because they lack ideas, they stall because decision ownership is diffused. When no one fully owns the direction, momentum dies quietly. The same principle applies at an individual level. Progress accelerates when ownership is clear.

The common thread in everything I started wasn’t confidence, talent, or perfect timing, it was permission. And once I stopped waiting for permission, momentum followed. Not overnight. Not flawlessly. But measurably.

I also learned that clarity doesn’t come before action, it comes from it. You don’t gain confidence and then start. You start, and confidence follows. And when you take ownership of your own path, you give others permission to do the same.

For a long time, I let doubt and other people’s expectations drive my decisions. I still doubt myself. But doubt didn’t stop execution. Ownership changed everything.

Like many founders before us, belief comes first. Validation comes later. Conviction is the starting line.

As I look forward to 2026, I’m not focused on bigger goals. I’m focused on braver ones. Fewer borrowed expectations. More experiments. Less waiting. More building.

Because sometimes the most important business decision you can make isn’t optimizing or planning or proving anything at all.

It’s deciding to take ownership and try.