2025 reinforced a simple truth for me: building things is only half the job. The other half is everything around it - trust, communication, leverage, and patience.

Here are the lessons that stuck, grouped into something closer to a working philosophy than a checklist.

Marketing, Branding, and Trust

Marketing isn't secondary to building. In many cases, it's just as important - sometimes more.

Branding fuels marketing, and marketing builds trust. Trust is the foundation of every sustainable business.

Branding isn't just your logo or website. It's what you're associated with, who you are, and what you consistently do. Every action either builds trust or erodes it.

Top-of-funnel activities matter more than most people admit. A business can't function if nobody knows or trusts you.

Sales and content should be separated. Content earns trust. Sales converts it. Don't mix the two.

Trust is everything in business. Make decisions with that in mind, even when it's inconvenient.

Outcomes Over Activity

Outcomes are the north star. Outputs are just the tools you use to get there.

You improve what you measure. You don't improve what you ignore.

Tie business outcomes to all of your work. If something isn't creating an outcome, it's probably not worth doing.

Maximization beats pure efficiency. Put in the time. Depth compounds.

Time isn't the only lever. Skills change the slope of results.

Don't play the 1+1 game. Everything you do should grow something - speed, knowledge, confidence, delegation, accuracy, or leverage.

Reflection, Feedback, and Growth

Reflection and criticism are the fastest ways to grow - both individually and as a team.

The same applies to helping others: thoughtful critique accelerates their progress too.

Shorter feedback loops matter. Reflect and critique work in tighter execution intervals.

Break work down to its core components. That's how you build momentum over time.

Finished something? Leverage it. Ask:

What did I learn?

What would I do differently?

Where did things slow down?

Growth comes from compounding these answers.

Problem Solving and Strategy

Think about what the problem actually is before solving it.

Make complex problems as small as possible. Smaller problems are easier to execute and easier to teach others to solve.

Solve bigger problems. That's where the money usually is.

Get extremely specific about your ideal customer profile. A sharp definition becomes a strategy in itself.

Situations matter. People already motivated to fix a pain point are far easier to help.

People, Teams, and Talent

Avoid resentment with teammates. Don't be an asshole - be a teacher.

A-players, people who want to do amazing things, are the only people worth hiring or working with.

Hiring and talent eventually become the main scaling constraint. Bad talent creates bad companies.

Soft skills matter more than hard skills. Hard skills are easier to train.

Be honest about what you're pulling people into. Even if it's not perfect, it might be exactly what they want.

Value, Money, and Leverage

Money is information. It's a signal of value transfer.

People love to save time - one of the fastest ways to show value.

People also love to save money - one of the easiest ways to show value.

Services are often the easiest path to revenue. People are comfortable trading time for money.

Code and software are just tools to reach an outcome.

AI now lets you build websites faster than most no-code tools, especially for custom work. It's often the better leverage.

Performance, Stress, and Sustainability

Stress isn't valuable. The less stress you put your body through, the better you perform long-term.

Consume a lot but create just as much. A healthy growth ratio feels close to 50/50.

My learning strategy: Bulk consume, then act, then critique. Repeat.

Measure how you spend your time to see how you're wasting it.

Becoming top 1% isn't as hard as it seems. It just takes time, discipline, and consistent self-reflection.

Expect meaningful outcomes to take years. Play the long game.

The New Year and New Goals

I'm going to start a 2026 with a few goals:

I want to lean into content creation. I'm going to start writing more.

I want to learn more about the intersection of AI and business.

I want to read more books. The goal to 2 per month!

I want to help more people. Writing content is a great way to do that.

I want to get my SaaS startups off the ground, pull in a bit of extra revenue.

My 2025 Wrapped: 41 Lessons on Building, Trust, and Long-Term Leverage