Hey Reader,

What happens if you step away from your business for a week, a month, or even longer?

Many high performers have built incredible businesses, brands, and reputations, but they’re the ones keeping those machines running.

People build success with the desire for freedom in the long run, but they rarely experience that sense of freedom.

Today, I’ll share how what you’ve built can endure even if you take a step back.

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🗯️ Leading beyond your presence

Let’s talk about Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo..

When she stepped down as CEO in 2018 after 12 years at the helm, she left behind a stronger company, a clear strategy, and a team ready to lead.

Nooyi was known for her long-term thinking, placing bets early on health and wellness before they became mainstream trends, and building systems that supported those shifts.

But what made her truly stand out is her commitment to developing leaders beneath her.

She once said in an interview with Fortune: “I always believed I should run the company as if I’m going to be hit by a bus tomorrow. So every day, I asked myself: Are my people ready? Is the strategy clear? Are the values intact?”

That mindset shaped her leadership style.

She mentored deeply, gave real responsibility to her team, and created a structure where decisions didn’t rely on her alone.

When she finally passed the baton to her successor, Ramon Laguarta, the transition was seamless because of deliberate preparation.

According to Nooyi, leadership is less about how much you control and more about how well you prepare others to lead.

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🧠 Are you the bottleneck?

When was the last time you took a real break?

If the thought of stepping away makes your stomach drop, you’ve created a system of dependency.

You’re the one with the vision, so it’s natural to be in charge.

A project stalls, so you step in.

A client gets upset, you smooth things over.

A team member struggles, and you show them exactly how to do it.

Over time, these habits grow into patterns, and patterns turn into systems (more like crutches).

Your team can grow reluctant to solve problems on their own because they know you’ll swoop in.

Processes break down because they weren’t designed to function without you, especially as you scale.

People’s creativity and innovation are diluted since everyone waits for your stamp of approval.

Before you know it, you’ve become the bottleneck. The very thing you built to create freedom somehow feels like you’ve made a prison out of it.

And as exhausting as it is, you’re worried that if you take a step back, a lot of things will go wrong.

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❤️ This is what freedom should feel like

Achieving success shouldn’t leave you stuck in the center of it all.

When you embrace the art of letting go, you’ll realize stepping back isn’t stepping down.

You’ll understand that the main goal is to train people so well that they don’t need you.

You’ll build systems that don’t rely on your willpower to work.

So you’ll live in the freedom of having a team that doesn’t just execute tasks, but owns every outcome.

They innovate, solve problems, and make decisions without your constant input.

You’re not working round the clock putting out fires.

You’re building something bigger than your presence.

Because real success is creating something that thrives without you.

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🤲 How to start letting go (Without losing your mind)

You don’t step away in one giant leap. Start with one deliberate step.

You can start by practicing any of these tips:

1. Let people stumble: Your team will mess up. You’ll want to swoop in. Pause. Let them investigate, diagnose, and come up with a solution without micromanaging. Then you can recommend tweaks to the synthesis, diagnosis, and design to improve things for next time. That’s how you build capability to learn and evolve.
2. Leaders speak last: Give people a chance to speak first. Let your team lead with ideas and solutions. You’ll not only learn how they think and what they are like, you’ll build their ability to think and lead without you.
3. Delegate the meeting: Hand off some meeting onwership. Let someone else set the agenda, lead the discussion, and manage the follow-up while you observe, but don’t control. Over time, trust builds, and eventually, maybe you won’t need to be present. Imagine cutting your meetings by half and still getting results.

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🎯 Now, can you step away?

When you look back on your journey, will you see a machine that ran on your stress or one that thrived because of the leaders you empowered?

As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good [people] to do what [they] want done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

You didn’t build successful businesses just to burn out keeping them afloat.

You built it for freedom.

So it’s time to take a step back if you haven’t already.

You’ve got more untapped potential to live up to.

With appreciation,

Huw

Huw Edwards Founder & CEO, h3.xyz​

Whenever you're ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Join my free #75Hard Community: for those inspired to undertake the transformative #75hard program to build mental toughness for greater achievements. You also get to be surrounded by other overachievers at different levels of the program.
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2. Later this year, I will be launching an exclusive new mastermind for elite founders and CEOs to become unfuckwithable, maintain high performance, and live up to their potential. I share 10 years of experience leading organizations, buying businesses, starting companies, and doing crazy endurance feats. This program sets the stage for a new era of empowered elite CEOs & entrepreneurs.

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Book a free Clarity​ Call to see if you are fit for the program.