"I have always felt that I've needed to prove myself." That's Stephanie Unwin, who became the CEO of Veronica Beard this year after thirteen years as its president. Most of the leaders I coach feel the same way. They get the title or build the company, and a few weeks later they're already chasing the next thing. I did it too. I spent most of my career trying to show my parents, and then everyone else, that I was worth something, and I still catch myself doing it.

He rebuilt his career as a portfolio of roles: consulting provided stability, teaching gave him joy, and experimenting with emerging technologies stretched his curiosity and kept him future-ready. In every era, there is a “curve” leaders must learn to ride, and today that curve is AI. It is moving faster than most of us can process, and it is already redrawing the boundaries of entire professions. The same curiosity that pushed Yogesh to walk away from corporate life is now m

When Maryann Bruce survived US Airways Flight 1549—the "Miracle on the Hudson"—she described it this way: "It’s as if I went to my own...