🎥 Sunday Reset with Steven – 8 June 2025
“You’re Not Afraid of Failing. You’re Afraid of What Happens If It Works.”

Most people think fear holds them back.
Fear of failing. Fear of judgment. Fear of getting it wrong. Happens to me too.

But this week, I had a different realisation:

What if we’re not afraid to fail… we’re afraid to succeed?
To grow beyond what’s familiar.
To actually get the outcome we say we want.

📚 Abraham Maslow once said:

“We fear our highest possibilities… We thrill to godlike potential …and yet we shiver before it.”

I felt that this week - not in crisis, but in a decision moment.
The initiative I am on was ready to scale. The pushback?

"Let’s not overreach."
But was that risk management… or fear of thriving?

In those moments, I ask teams:
“What would we do if we weren’t afraid of succeeding too fast?”
It changes the room.

Then came a reminder I carry with me every week:
👉🏽 The Starfish Story (it’s an adaptation of Loren Eisley).
One boy. One small act.
Too many challenges to solve - but he still threw one starfish back into the ocean.

"I made a difference to that one."

That’s the real leadership shift.
Tiny actions. Big momentum.
Because you don’t change your life in a day—but you do change your days.
And eventually, that changes everything.

Here’s what moved me most this week:

A board committee member who finally spoke up after staying silent for weeks.
A quiet nudge that helped someone back their own voice.
No slides. No strategy.
Just human courage in real time.
That’s what leadership looks like.

📌 “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
- Marianne Williamson

Prompt for your week:
What’s your starfish?
What’s one small, human action you can take—today—that might not change the world, but could change someone’s day?

More in the video - check it out.

This is your hashtag#SundayReset.
I’m Steven.
Keep growing. Keep leading.
Until next Sunday.
Let’s get it!

Steven PAUL, CDir FIoD – shaping boards and CxO Exec teams in the era of AI for successful transformation. Sharing a decade of strategic global boardroom actionable insights on effectiveness, Gen AI, leadership, innovation and growth.
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