23/07/2026
I spent years climbing a ladder somebody else built for me.
Get the degree. Get the title. Get the promotion. Save a little here, grow a little there, and one rung at a time you climb toward the life you’re supposed to want.
I was good at it. I’d studied leadership, business, executive organization. I always knew which rung came next.
I thought that somewhere further up the ladder, I’d find what I was really looking for.
And the ladder always had a next rung ready. More revenue. A bigger title. The number that finally says you’ve made it.
But every time I got there, the number went quiet and pointed at the next one. There was always a next one.
Years ago, out on a balcony in Mexico, a mentor asked me what was next.
I gave her the ladder answer. Work hard, save, climb, repeat. The same year, ninety more times.
She stopped me and asked it a different way.
“If you could do or have anything, what would you love?”
And here’s the thing. I knew the answer. A home for my family. I could see it clearly.
But it had never once occurred to me to actually go after it, because it wasn’t the next rung. It wasn’t a promotion or a smarter savings plan. It didn’t live anywhere on the ladder I’d been climbing.
Her question moved me off the climb and put me back in touch with what I actually wanted. Not what made sense. What I would love.
A ladder is a great tool. It makes a lousy purpose.
The people I respect most aren’t the ones who climbed the highest. They’re the ones who set down the ladder they were handed and started building something they were genuinely in love with.
That’s the real move. Not climbing harder. Not proving more.
Deciding who you’re here to be, and then letting your ordinary days cast small votes for that person until it’s simply who you are.
You are not your title. You are so much more than last year’s number. There is more in you than any rung could ever measure.
So let me ask you the question that changed everything for me.
Set the ladder down for a second.
What would you love?
