"I knew how big of a competitive advantage it was that I didn't want others to know what I was doing." The following year, he jumped from barely keeping his tour card to finishing 10th on the Order of Merit. All from learning to breathe properly. The lesson for leaders? Sometimes your missing competitive advantage isn't a complex strategy—it's mastering something you do 20,000 times a day without thinking about it.

A fellow veteran once said to me: "You're such an accomplished woman." My actual response out loud, "Am I?" I wasn't being falsely modest. I genuinely didn't know. Because I don't think much about my credentials: B.A. in 2005—that was a long time ago M.A. in 2022—took forever to finish Military service—yet I never deployed to combat Building this business—we're still small Let me pause on that last one. Do you know the actual SBA definition of a "small business"? Depending on your industry, you can have 500 employees or make millions in revenue and still be classified as small. But I was using "small" like it meant "not enough yet." Like it carried shame. Being shameful and being humble are not the same thing. Humility recognizes gifts received. Shame dismisses value earned.