The essence of business leadership, growth and value
Twenty years ago I started my career in the corporate world. Ambitious, driven, but mostly naive and inexperienced about how business really works. I thought that hard work and good performance were enough. That expertise automatically led to recognition. That loyalty was rewarded.
I was wrong.
I learned the most important lessons not in boardrooms or training, but through mistakes, oversights and missed opportunities. By observing leaders who seemed to move effortlessly, while I struggled. By especially through conversations with successful leaders and entrepreneurs who did break through.
A valuable lesson I learned from a CEO: No matter how brilliant you are, but if you're trying to win by working harder and harder, you're playing the wrong game. The real game is about creating value and building strategic relationships.
By now I understand why some accelerate and others continue to struggle. It is not the smartest who wins, but the one who learns the right lessons the fastest. Not the hardest worker reaches the top, but the one who understands that business success is about value, strategy and impact, not hours.
Wisdom is not created by collecting more, but by recognizing the essential. And acting on it consistently.
In this Empowered Letters, I share the first 25 of the 50 most valuable lessons. Part 2 will follow next week. These are the lessons that cost me a lot at first, but ultimately proved priceless. They are now the foundation of how I help leaders and entrepreneurs grow faster and more strategically, with more impact and more freedom.
Creating value and impact
Lesson 1: Creating value is not a sales trick
Value is not created by selling, but by being of value and real service. The most successful entrepreneurs don't sell time, they sell transformation. They raise their fees not based on hours, but on impact.
Value is not in what you do, but in what you make possible for others.
Lesson 2: Authentic communication wins over marketing
Most entrepreneurs try harder to promote themselves. But the louder you shout, the less it works. Value arises not in your message, but in your connection to what your customer really needs.
Understand the real problems, not just the symptoms.
Lesson 3: Trust over volume
Trust and focus are more valuable than volume. Your distinctiveness lies not in your expertise, but in your ability to hear what customers have not yet dared to say.
In a world full of noise, sincere attention is your remarkable distinction.
Investing in what really matters
Lesson 4: The best financial choices are rarely financial
Marjo, a top client in my journey Scale to Freedom , was at a crossroads. Her practice was running well, but she felt she had reached her ceiling. Despite an uncertain economy, she decided in March to invest heavily in her development. An investment that equaled several months of turnover.
Her fellow entrepreneurs declared her crazy. But Marjo felt something others did not see and could not empathize with. Because the investment was not in a course or strategic business coach, but in her ability to create value for herself, for the growth of her business and most importantly for the future of her beautiful daughters.
Within two months, she had already sold her new, value-driven offering twice. Without having to actively sell.
The investment had brought her not only new skills, but more importantly a new perspective on her own value. The best financial choices come from a deeper understanding of value and potential.
Invest not in what you want to learn, but in who you want to become.
Lesson 5: Make yourself future-fit
Stay relevant by being future-fit for tomorrow's customers. Not by discounting or being undervalued, but by staying of value. Anticipate where your target market is moving and be there already.
Position yourself not for today's market, but for tomorrow's market.
Relationships are growth accelerators
Lesson 6: Relationships rule the world
People do business with people. Invest your time and energy in that. Especially now with all the AI tools and chatbots, human connection becomes all the more valuable.
In business, it's not about who you know, but who knows and values you.
Lesson 7: Talk less. Better listening.
People who listen win; the rest don't last long. Listening is the most undervalued skill in business. By really listening, you discovered needs that customers themselves had not yet expressed.
Stop selling what you think your customers need. Offer solutions for what they really need.
Lesson 8: Focus on customers, not competition
Focus on your customers, not your competition. Your greatest competitive advantage is not your knowledge, but your ability to hear what customers themselves could not yet/did not put into words.
Those new customer insights lead to innovations that allow you to perfectly match the real needs of your top customers.
The most valuable market information comes not from reports, but from conversations.
Lesson 9: Quality over necessity
Be proud of the value you create, not what you consume.
Offer experiences that are high quality and high value. Excellence is the ultimate distinction.
Leadership and positioning
Lesson 10: What seems abnormal today is the normal tomorrow.
Innovation often comes from people thinking, working and leading differently. Often it is those who "don't fit" within the existing system who change the system later. Visionary leaders are already working today according to principles that will be standard tomorrow.
What makes you different is often exactly what makes you valuable.
Lesson 11: Dare to be different
Being different feels uncomfortable. It goes against what is "normal. And yet deviance is often the origin of progress. It is precisely there that space for innovation is created.
Guts to be different. Different. In your own unique way.
Lesson 12: First believe, then can
Many entrepreneurs wait for confirmation from others before they dare to move. But true leadership works differently. First believe, then act, and proof follows. By fully trusting your direction and acting on that belief, you build a strong brand with a clear message.
Faith is not a consequence of success. It is the condition for it.
Your energy as a priority
Lesson 13: Your energy reveals your priorities
What you give your energy to shows what you really care about. Take an honest look at your energy allocation. Often you put a lot of time into perfecting things that are already good enough, while the real opportunities for growth remain. Growth is not created by working harder, but by working more focused. Strategically smart.
What gets your energy, grows. Make sure it is, the right thing.
Lesson 14: Behind-the-scenes counts
What people see is the result. What they don't see makes all the difference. Strategic leadership occurs behind the scenes: in preparation, daily habits and choices that no one notices. Become extraordinarily good at making strategic choices and knowing what you say 'no' to. For every "yes," sacrifice a thousand options. Simplify, simplify is enriching in time, energy and profitable growth.
Keep the main thing the main thing. Always. Simplicity is the highest form of strategy.
The influence of your environment
Lesson 15: Surround yourself with the best
You grow to the level of your surroundings. Invest in a network beyond you that expands your perspective and definition of possible.
Your biggest limitation is often your environment. Change that and you change your results.
You grow to the level of your environment. Choose that environment consciously.
Lesson 16: Focus and vision
Stay true to the core of your business. The temptation to conform is strong, but as soon as you trade your vision for convenience or speed, you lose your distinctiveness.
You are the guardian of your vision.
Lesson 17: Choose who you admire
Who you admire determines the direction in which you grow. Top performers attract top performers. Mediocrity attracts mediocrity.
By immersing yourself in the thinking and standards of people at a higher level, you automatically lift your own positioning. Not to copy, but to raise your own bar.
You don't become who you admire, but you do move in their direction.
Lesson 18: Quality has a price
Do you want quality? Then you must be willing to pay for it. Invest with your time, energy or money. Cheap often means expensive. Not only in people, but also in processes, partners and products.
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
Invest in quality. Build smaller, stronger teams. Give people room to excel. The investment always pays off in results, peace of mind and reputation.
Strategic investment in quality is not a luxury. It is leadership.
Focus and strategy
Lesson 19: Your own system. Your earned secret.
Every strong company rests on a unique insight its own "earned secret. It arises from years of experience, mistakes, observations and breakthroughs.
It is knowledge that becomes visible only to those who have looked deeply enough. For those who not only recognize patterns, but also understand why they arise. That is the difference between superficial knowledge and true wisdom.
Your earned secret is what sets you apart and cannot simply be copied.
Lesson 20: The power of a unique combination
What makes you unique is a combination that no one else has. It is personal and the reason clients want to work with you.
Your distinction lies in an unexpected mix. For example, between hard strategy and soft intuition. That combination is your superpower. By recognizing and leveraging that combination, you develop an approach that works because this formula for success is yours.
You are incomparable. Not to be copied, not to be replaced.
Lesson 21: Strategic opportunism
Maintain focus and flexibility. Strategy means staying on course and moving along smartly. Strategy without space is rigid.
Opportunities without direction cause chaos.
The art of elimination
Lesson 22: The power of saying no
Focus mainly means saying 'no' to everything else. Every "yes" costs you time and energy.
Focus means daring to make choices. And especially not doing (more) many things. The sharper your 'yes', the more powerful your 'no'. A simple no filter can make all the difference. It helps you distinguish between good and great.
Those who dare to say no to good make room for great.
Lesson 23: Choose the best, not the good opportunities
Not everything that is possible is also valuable. Ask yourself not, "Is this a good opportunity?" but, "Is this the best opportunity for where I want to go?
Then clarity emerges. No endless discussions about every idea or proposal. Only the opportunities that fit perfectly with your vision and strategy remain. The rest no longer do and no longer spend time and energy on them.
The enemy of "great" is not "bad," but "good enough.
Lesson 24: Work on your best idea
You build on the idea that feels logical, safe or, achievable, but is it your best idea? Otherwise, you're building something that you end up not fulfilling and contributing to the bigger picture.
Your best work lies at the edge of your comfort zone. Beyond that is the space for growth.
Lesson 25: Keep the main thing the main thing
Simplicity is your greatest strength. Simplicity forces you to make choices. To know what matters and what really matters. Simplicity is staying true to the essentials.
Stay true to your essence, to what really matters to you.
These are the first 25 lessons that have helped me to grow not only harder, but more importantly smarter and more valuable, enriched. Transformation never begins with perfect circumstances, but always with a new step.
Next week you will receive Part 2 with the remaining 25 lessons. New insights to accelerate your growth, as well as build your legacy sustainably.
With powerful greetings,
Gerdi
Your freedom and success. My mission.
PS. I work with women who no longer settle for mediocrity. Women who want to raise their standards in their lives, leadership and business. Women who are ready to choose more: more freedom, more profit, more meaning.
Make your work a legacy.
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