Part 4: The 3 Things I’d Teach My 25-Year-Younger Self
Me, hanging out with Billy Durant and J. Dallas Dort
If I could sit down with the version of me who was just starting out, I would not give him a motivational speech. I would give him three corrections.
Not because I had bad intentions. I fell for the same trap most high-achievers do: I mistook activity for achievement. I wanted to be useful, fast, and seen as competent. So I ran hard at urgency, tried to earn credibility in big moments, and occasionally used complexity as a shield.
Here are the three things I wish I had learned sooner.
1) Stop confusing urgency with importance
Early in my career, I treated urgency like a scoreboard. If it was loud, it must matter. If it was on fire, it deserved my full attention.
In a company as large as GM, there is an infinite supply of "urgent" fires. If you try to put them all out, you just end up as ash. That mindset is addictive because urgency makes you feel needed; it gives you a daily hit of significance.
But a lot of urgent work is just unmanaged work. I would tell my younger self: Your job is not to be fast. Your job is to be right about what matters. The most effective people I know ask the annoying question: “What happens if we do not do this today?” Sometimes the answer is “bad things,” and you move. But sometimes the answer is silence—and that silence is information.
2) Your credibility is a savings account, not a paycheck
I used to think credibility was a simple transaction: you do good work, you get paid in trust. It doesn't work that way.
Credibility is a savings account. You make deposits slowly through consistency, accuracy, and the small stuff nobody applauds. Then one day, you need to make a withdrawal. During a crisis or a hard decision, high credibility allows you to move at the speed of trust. If you’ve made the deposits, people assume positive intent.
If you haven't, you end up trying to take out a loan at the worst possible time, and the interest rate is brutal. Once people decide you are slippery, every message you send costs twice as much to land.
3) If you cannot explain it simply, you do not own it yet
This one stings because younger me liked sounding smart.
I’ve learned that clarity is not "dumbing it down." Clarity is doing the work. To be honest, I still fall into this trap today. I often share too much context, thinking I’m being thorough or helpful, when I’m actually just making things more complex than they need to be.
I might think I’m providing "necessary background," but the audience just thinks I’m trying to be the smartest person in the room. If you can’t explain a topic simply, you either don't understand it yet, or you're afraid of what will happen if people see the core of it.
Action is the point. When you are clear, people feel respected and included. They can actually move.
The part I would add, quietly
Being good at your job is not the same thing as being valuable. Value comes from judgment—choosing what matters and helping people move through uncertainty without panic.
As I mark 25 years, I’m not celebrating a vertical climb; I’m marking a slow improvement curve. The edits. The corrections. The lessons learned five years later than they should have been.
If you are earlier in your career, consider this a shortcut:
Do not let urgency run your life.
Do not spend credibility like it is infinite.
Do not hide behind complexity.
And if you recognize yourself in any of that, good. That means you are paying attention.
Thank you to everyone who helped me make these deposits over the last quarter-century. Here’s to the next chapter of staying simple, staying patient, and focusing on what matters.