Build your vision, fuel your performance
“Many of the world’s best people understood that to change their lives, they had to change their minds; that to believe is to become, that the mind is to be mastered, that the obstacle is the way.” — Brianna West.
Yesterday, I delivered my fifth Money Journey masterclass (yaay!). I shared some of the jarring things I experienced in 2020 that formed the basis for my success today.
It was hard, but I saw an opportunity and got to work. I hope this edition inspires you to do the same.
In this one:
Vision
Dreams
Execution
Let’s dig in, shall we?
EXPLAINER
Grand vision pt 2 — the unfolding path
A couple of weeks ago, I introduced the idea of a grand vision, a personal roadmap that goes beyond a career path to help you navigate life with intention.
I’ve studied different people’s evolving grand visions and here are a few standouts.
It's not a map others provide, it’s one you build
Emma Grede battled dyslexia and dropped out of school at 16 to pursue a career in fashion. Those first ten years of speaking to customers in stores prepared her to build her fashion empire.
The next ten years saw her build an entertainment marketing agency where she created brand partnerships between celebrities and luxury brands. This prepared her to pitch strong business ideas to the Kardashians after selling her agency.
Her choices taught her to trust her gut and build around unmet customer needs; SKIMS has shapewear in nine different shades, and Good American stocks jeans up to 4XL to accommodate all sizes.
You don’t need others to believe in your vision to act on it
Whitney Wolfe Herd was bullied online after filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against Tinder, where she was a cofounder and VP of marketing.
She had sworn off building another dating app, but her investor insisted, so she turned to her pain points — building a safe space for women online (Bumble).
Bumble’s thesis of women making the first move on a dating app attracted doubts even from team members. But she became the youngest woman to take a company public at 31 in 2021.
Self-acceptance starts within and is the fuel for sustained excellence
Earlier in his career, Lewis Hamilton got tired of what an F1 driver’s supposed to do or look like. He chose to explore his love for fashion, attending shows and building relationships with prominent designers.
His fashion exploits resulted in a collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger, who later became an apparel partner for Mercedes and is an official partner of the F1 Academy.
He demonstrated multifaceted value at Mercedes and got them to fund his foundation, Mission 44, aiming to get more black people into F1 careers.
Lewis is a seven-time Formula 1 champion, and his excellence in one field has garnered him inroads in others: American football, film production, food tech and non-alcoholic beverages. Always carrying the inclusion banner wherever he goes.
Your grand vision is an unfolding path, guided by your inner compass and shaped by your unique experiences. Embrace the journey, trust your intuition, and focus on the lasting impact you want to create.
STUDY WITH ME
Look up any of the people listed above and learn from their journeys as you craft your grand vision. But first, here’s a song that permits us to imagine and then create the impossible.
STORY
Your unique performance blueprint
We’ve explored how intentionality lays the groundwork for a fulfilling life. Today, we examine the interplay between consistency and intensity because sparking change calls for sustainable excellence.
Let’s look at triathlete Lucy Charles-Barclay as an example.
The summit
Consistency is the foundation of high performance in anything. You break records when you stay in the arena long enough. For Lucy, this looks like relentless daily training across swim, bike, and run.
Intensity is the strategic spark that takes athletes from great to G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time). After four second-place finishes at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, she was in it to win it in 2023.
During the race, she pushed through a significant calf tear right as the run began – an extraordinary display of mental and physical intensity fueled by years of consistent preparation.
The climb
That success came at a cost, as Lucy’s 2024 season called for wisdom and decisions that went against her “fight to the finish” nature.
She had to withdraw from the World Championships in Nice so she couldn’t defend her title. Then came the disappointing withdrawal from the London T100 event during the run (again) — it was the first time she was racing on home soil in front of some of her friends and family.
She spent the rest of 2024 getting back into peak shape by challenging herself in smaller races. She set a new European record in the 1500m Freestyle (30 to 35) at the Swim England Masters, surpassing the previous best by over seven seconds.
Her recent third-place finish in her first 2025 race is a testament to the results of this balanced approach. She chose to race while battling a cold but cancelled some sessions leading up to race day to recover.
The blueprint
A high-performance life is a series of multiple climbs and summits. Once you reach the top of one mountain, it’s time to scale another.
I listened to Lucy’s interview before the London T100 race in 2024. She was full of unwavering confidence retelling the Kona story. You couldn’t tell she was sick, and she wouldn’t let that stop her like many times before.
I’d been running a marathon throughout 2024 after years of expanding my mental and physical capacity. I wanted more pace in December, but her decision challenged me to explore my resting strategy for 2025 during this downtime.
Identify consistent habits for your foundation and apply focused intensity to achieve your goals. Understanding your own "race season" will help you seize unexpected opportunities or scale back when needed.
More knowledge, faster results
When I’m not working, training or sleeping, I spend much of my time studying. YouTube, podcasts, books, newsletters, white papers, ChatGPT, interviewing friends/colleagues — anything that can feed my knowledge bank.
Athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, activists… Human stories challenge the size of my vision and equip me with tools to accelerate my impact.
How are you pouring into your mind?
WN