Peter Gourri Coaching and Consulting LLC

09/21/2026

It is not fame or a title that makes somebody memorable. It is how they make others feel in their company.

I have met a remarkable range of people during my life, from an East End housewife who survived N**i bombing and wartime hunger, to immigrants who escaped the Taliban or Iraqi militias. I have met Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the Royal Family, and represented several well known figures from film and entertainment.

Consequently, I am not often starstruck.

Meeting Ambassador James P. Cain today, however, was a genuine treat.

Ambassador Cain, the former United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and author of Reign of Secrets, joined us to speak at the Club of Raleigh.

I had been impressed by him before we met. Having now listened to him speak and spent time talking with him, I am even more so.

He is exceptionally intelligent and insightful, but what struck me most was his kindness, warmth and humanity. He was a pleasure to deal with before and throughout today’s meeting.

It is refreshing to meet someone who combines genuine accomplishment with professionalism, humility and an obvious interest in other people.

If you have not yet read Reign of Secrets, I encourage you to consider buying a copy. It is a fascinating historical fiction thriller, and I am already looking forward to the next chapter.

Thank you, P. Cain, for joining us and for such an enjoyable and thought provoking afternoon. I hope we have the pleasure of welcoming you back.

Transparency statement: I have used AI as a drafting and editing tool in preparing this post. The experiences, opinions, thoughts and ideas are mine, and I take full responsibility for the final words.

09/16/2026

As a proud board member of Raleigh Crime Stoppers, I am delighted to support our Golf Tournament on Monday, November 9, 2026.

This is a wonderful opportunity for companies and individuals across the Triangle to get involved, enjoy a great day, and support an organisation that plays an important role in keeping our community safer.

Raleigh Crime Stoppers enables people to provide information about crimes anonymously. Those tips can help law enforcement solve cases, protect local families and businesses, and may qualify the person providing the information for a cash reward. Raising the funds needed to support this work is therefore incredibly important.

We are currently looking for:

⛳ Golfers and foursomes
⛳ Tournament sponsors
🎁 Raffle prizes
🎁 Silent auction items
🎟️ Gift cards, tickets, experiences, products, and services

You do not need to be a golfer to help, although there is a distinct possibility that you may see me holding a golf club. Anyone who knows my views on golf, or has witnessed my complete lack of golfing ability, will appreciate just how extraordinary that prospect is. Whether I shall be playing golf or merely posing as a danger to the general public remains to be seen.

On a serious note, every sponsor, donation, introduction, and shared post will help Raleigh Crime Stoppers continue its valuable work.

If your company would like to sponsor the tournament, donate a prize, enter a team, or support us in another way, please contact me. I would be delighted to connect you with the organisers.

Please also share this with anyone in your network who may wish to become involved.

Find out more at:
www.raleighcrimestoppers.org

Let us have some fun, bring our community together, and support a cause that helps make Raleigh safer for everyone.

09/13/2026

Last Thursday evening, I had the great pleasure of speaking to V.E.T. Connect, Veteran Entrepreneurs of the Triangle.

The title was deliberately provocative:

“Business for Veterans, Does It Have to Suck?”

We explored how some of the qualities that make veterans so valuable in business, including integrity, loyalty, trust, resilience and a willingness to serve, can also leave us commercially vulnerable.

Sometimes we trust without verifying. We tolerate unclear agreements. We stay loyal for too long. We keep fighting when the wiser decision would be to stop, change direction or walk away.

My suggested protection is straightforward:

Clarify. Verify. Document. Review. Act.

We do not need to abandon our values or become cynical. We simply need to take those values into business with our eyes open.

Thank you to the organisers and everyone who attended, asked questions and shared their experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and was genuinely grateful for the excellent turnout.

I am available to speak at conferences, business meetings, workshops and community events, both in person and online. If your organisation would benefit from a candid, practical and occasionally humorous conversation about leadership, careers, business or the veteran experience, please get in touch.

www.petergourri.com

09/12/2026

FOUR MONTHS ON, AND MY FIRST REAL EXERCISE IN FIVE YEARS

It is almost four months since my surgery on May 14th, 2026, when I had a Medtronic spinal cord stimulator implanted in my body.

Although four months may sound like a long time, I am still adjusting. I still find it strange knowing that there is an electronic device inside me, and I have to remember to recharge it every few days.

There have been a few occasions when I did not realise that the battery had run down. When that happened, the pain returned with a vengeance. I am not going to pretend it was anything other than horrible. I am much more disciplined about charging it now.

The difference the stimulator has made, however, is remarkable. My pain levels are generally around one or two out of ten, rather than the twelve out of ten they frequently reached before surgery.

I still experience periods of considerable exhaustion. I sometimes wake suddenly and violently from a nap, and it can take me quite a while to feel properly awake again. Whether this is part of the continuing recovery from major surgery or simply my body adjusting to everything it has endured, I do not yet know.

What I do know is that it is wonderful not to be living in relentless pain.

This morning marked another significant milestone. I attended a preview Pilates session with the lovely team from Pilates Addiction, who are opening a new studio in Fuquay Varina.

It was my first proper exercise session since surgery and my first group exercise session in almost five years.

After the collision on March 31st, 2021, when a truck struck the Uber in which I was travelling, exercise became practically impossible. At times, even walking was debilitating. Five years of chronic pain have taken an enormous toll on my body, my strength and my confidence.

My core strength is practically nonexistent, which became abundantly clear this morning.

At various points, I looked rather like a large turtle stranded on its back, thrashing its arms and legs around while wondering when the session might mercifully end. Thankfully, nobody judged me, at least not openly.

As you can tell from the photographs, I was absolutely delighted to be there, he said in the most ironic and sarcastic British voice imaginable.

I was completely exhausted. I was also genuinely grateful when the session finished because, for a while, I thought it never would.

Beneath the humour, however, I was frightened.

I have been through such a horrific five years that I am now scared of hurting myself again. Those who know me will understand how unusual it is for me to say that. I have never generally been someone who runs away from difficult or frightening things.

This was therefore about far more than attempting Pilates and looking ridiculous.

It was about learning to trust my body again.

The owners and instructor from Pilates Addiction were warm, encouraging and incredibly kind. Nobody made me feel uncomfortable or out of place. They created an environment in which I could try, struggle, laugh at myself and keep going. I am enormously grateful to them for helping me take this important first step.

Recovery is not a straight line. There are good days, difficult days and moments when I am reminded very forcefully of what the stimulator is protecting me from.

However, I am moving more. I am becoming more active. I am beginning to lose some of the weight I gained during surgery and recovery. Most importantly, I am beginning to feel as though my body and my life belong to me again.

The past five years have also awakened me to other things. I have recognised that some people have taken advantage of my incapacity, although not always maliciously. Sometimes people have simply forgotten their commitments, become absent minded or grown accustomed to me being unable to challenge what was happening.

That realisation has made me sad, but it has also helped me learn.

I am making better choices about who and what I allow into my life. I am distancing myself from people and situations that need to be left behind. At the same time, I am increasingly grateful for the genuinely good people who surround me.

I am choosing my future.

I still intend to be hiking again by Thanksgiving, and the Himalayas remain firmly in my plans for 2028. I recognise that rebuilding my core strength, fitness and confidence will take patience, discipline and time.

This morning was one small, exhausting and thoroughly inelegant step forward.

Yet it was still a step forward.

I feel more positive, more awake, happier and kinder than I have for a very long time.

It is a funny old world, and I am looking forward to the future.

Thank you to everyone at Pilates Addiction for being part of an unexpectedly important morning in my recovery.

https://pilatesaddiction.com/location/holly-springs

let's do one for my Substack, please. Talking about the spinal stimulator itself and how it helps my body, etc. Expand on this a bit. Thank you. I also need a separate one for my Instagram, please.

09/10/2026

Intent does not erase impact. Impact does not automatically prove bad intent.

Yesterday, I published an article about workplace pecking orders. It concerned managers who keep capable people beneath the level at which they are already operating.

My subject was bad leadership. Gender was irrelevant.

I used chickens as a metaphor and included a ridiculous picture of myself dressed as one. What could possibly go wrong?

At 5 a.m. the next morning, a female friend who knows me well sent a thoughtful message. She pointed out that “henpecked” traditionally describes a man controlled by a woman, especially his wife.

I had not considered that meaning. I had been thinking about chickens.

My immediate response was not especially elegant.

Then I paused.

The facts were straightforward:

I intended to criticise poor leaders.

No woman was criticised.

The joke was directed at me.

The language still carried an association I had overlooked.

Both things can be true.

We should not assume every interpretation is correct. Context, good faith and proportionality matter. A clumsy phrase is not proof of a corrupt character.

Equally, shouting “That is not what I meant” does not make another person’s interpretation disappear.

Leadership means becoming interested in the gap:

What did I mean?

What did you hear?

What needs to be clarified or changed?

My friend did not accuse. She alerted me privately and respectfully.

Perhaps we have not simply lost an age of innocence. Perhaps we are gaining awareness.

I will continue to get things wrong. Hopefully, I will continue to breathe, reflect and remain teachable.

That is not weakness. It is growth.

www.petergourri.com

Please share this if it may help someone approach a difficult conversation with greater curiosity.

Transparency statement: I have used AI as a drafting and editing tool in preparing this post. The experiences, opinions, thoughts and ideas are mine, and I take full responsibility for the final words.

09/10/2026

Why should you listen to two people discussing artificial intelligence when there is already so much noise surrounding it?

Because this is not a conversation about the latest shiny tool, miraculous prompt or prediction that AI will either save civilisation or destroy it.

It is a conversation about judgement.

In the first episode of Adult Supervision Required, my friend Kellie L. Bradley and I examine two increasingly common extremes.

Some people want nothing to do with AI. They distrust it, avoid it and hope the whole thing will eventually go away.

Others seem content to hand it almost everything, including work that still requires experience, expertise, curiosity, ethical awareness and plain old human judgement.

Somewhere between “I’m not touching that thing” and “Why would I do it myself?” is a conversation worth having.

Kellie is an AI business strategist who helps organisations turn artificial intelligence into something genuinely useful within real business situations. I bring the leadership and accountability perspective as an ICF trained executive coach and consultant, former City of London lawyer, former New York C Suite executive and retired senior Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve officer.

We do not agree automatically, speak in corporate clichés or pretend to possess perfect answers. We ask difficult questions, challenge assumptions and explore what responsible AI use actually looks like when real people, businesses and consequences are involved.

Our original intention was also to ask whether AI will replace people in the workplace. Apparently, we had rather a lot to say, so the discussion became a two part conversation.

Part One, No AI. All AI., is available now.

Part Two, Will AI Replace Me?, will be released on September 15 at 7:00 a.m.

This conversation may be particularly helpful if you:

• Lead a team or organisation
• Own or manage a business
• Advise clients professionally
• Feel uncertain or overwhelmed by AI
• Already use AI but wonder whether you rely upon it too heavily
• Want practical discussion without the hype or hysteria

Please have a listen and let us know what you think:

https://bytekraft.substack.com/p/no-ai-all-ai

Where do you sit at present, no AI, all AI, or somewhere in the middle?

You can learn more about my work at www.petergourri.com.



AI transparency note: AI was used to help refine this post. The ideas, experiences, views and final approval are my own.

https://bytekraft.substack.com/p/no-ai-all-ai?r=6b2ko&utm_medium=ios

Two extremes. Same technology. Neither one particularly interested in the middle ground.

09/10/2026

Some workplaces have a pecking order, and occasionally the chickens are better behaved.

I was speaking with a client about employers who give people greater responsibility but withhold the title, authority or pay that should accompany it.

Sometimes there is an innocent explanation. Budgets may be constrained. A suitable role may not exist. Someone else may be better qualified.

Sometimes, however, keeping a capable person beneath the level they deserve is a means of control.

There is a recognised expression for part of this: talent hoarding. A manager may obstruct someone’s development because losing that person would weaken the team, affect results or expose the manager’s limitations.

I was taught that one of the first responsibilities of a good leader is to begin developing their eventual replacement.

Good leaders do not need other people to remain small so that they can feel important. They help people grow, share credit and create opportunities.

If you believe you are being contained rather than developed, ask yourself:

1. Has your responsibility increased without recognition?
2. Do the requirements for promotion keep changing?
3. Does your manager advocate for you?
4. Are you receiving useful feedback, or merely praise to keep you patient?
5. Is there a pathway and a genuine review date?

Do not make an impulsive decision. Gather evidence, ask direct questions and request clarity in writing. Then decide how long you are prepared to remain in an environment that may never recognise what you bring.

You may not need to work harder. You may need an honest conversation, a firmer boundary or a different workplace.

Stop being henpecked.

www.petergourri.com

Confidential conversation:
https://calendly.com/petergourri-coaching/success

Please share this with someone who may need it.

Transparency statement: I have used AI as a drafting and editing tool in preparing this post. The experiences, opinions, thoughts and ideas are mine, and I take full responsibility for the final words.

09/07/2026

Hi, my name is Pete, and I am a workaholic.

There, I have said it.

I started working at ten in my parents’ vehicle workshop, Costas Motors. At fourteen, I worked for Robert “Bob” Ilsley at Dolphin Coins in Hampstead. By seventeen, I was working full time as an outdoor clerk under Christopher J. Adams of Wray Smith & Co Solicitors. I eventually became a senior commercial litigator.

Sometimes I worked because I was ambitious. Sometimes it was because I feared returning to poverty. During a toxic marriage, work became somewhere to hide. After divorce, it became part of rebuilding my security.

Work gave me purpose, but it also became my armour.

A sermon at The Summit Church on Ecclesiastes 4 caused me to confront this question:

“For whom am I toiling, and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”

The message was not that work is bad. It was that work becomes empty when we exchange relationships for accomplishments.

Our work should reach down to help others, reach out in companionship and reach up to God.

I have always been willing to recommend people, promote their work, make introductions and open doors. That support is not always reciprocated, but I will continue because service should not be a transaction.

The harder admission is that I am not always good at reaching out, allowing myself to be fully known or accepting help.

Ecclesiastes reminds us that two are better than one because, when one falls, the other can help them up.

Service above self is central to how I try to live as a Christian, Rotarian and ICF executive coach. But service above self should not mean abandoning ourselves.

We need one handful of purposeful work and one handful of quietness. We need enough margin to stop, listen, help, rest and enjoy the people around us.

I still do not always practise what I preach. I am working on it.

Work hard. Help others. Build something meaningful.

But do not become so busy creating a life that you forget to live it.

If this might help someone, please share it.

www.petergourri.com

Book a discovery call:

https://calendly.com/petergourri-coaching/success

A note on authorship: AI helped me dictate and formulate this post. The story, thoughts and feelings are entirely my own.