"If you want something done right, do it yourself." This was one of the best — and worst — lessons drilled into me as a kid. Best, because it made me realize the power to do good things was in my own hands. Worst, because it made delegating nearly impossible. Needless to say, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the tensions I experience in delegation and how to do it better. Here’s what I came up with, condensed into a 2 minute read. A lot of people will tell you deleg

When did culture become a buzzword in entrepreneurship? If you spend any time consuming entrepreneurial content - scrolling Linkedin, listening to our startup podcast or visiting our events - you’ve no doubt noticed how the word “culture” has started to permeate every conversation. But if we dig a little deeper and ask those who speak about the importance of culture to explain what they mean by it, we often hear other buzzwords like values, beliefs and rituals. Or perhaps som

Did you bake the cake? Months before an important meeting, I sent an extensive document outlining expectations for my team. To keep it simple, let’s say I asked everyone to bake a cake and explained what I would offer them in return if their cake was delicious (aka incentive). Two days before the meeting, I asked one of my team members what kind of cake they were planning and was met with a blank stare. "Oh... I didn't realize that was expected of me." Their reaction sent me

Last week I lectured on sustainability in sport during a Philosophical Questions in Sport seminar at the UniBern. The general premise of the session titled “The Record Dilemma” was that while most people think of sustainability in sport as a cost-benefit analysis between emissions and resources, some philosophers argue that this is a “shallow” approach to sustainability and that there are some fundamental issues we need to consider first. Specifically, the sport philosopher S

In the broader cultural world of entrepreneurship we celebrate fuck-ups. So, I found it weird that I felt nervous before the meeting where I would have to confess that I didn’t complete my report on time. Pathetically, I spent the better half of the morning mentally scripting all the valid reasons for my failure. Then, when my turn came to share, after everyone boasted about how great they were doing, a watered-down version of the truth came out of my mouth - one that explain

If you asked me a few years ago to chose between having small talk with someone at a party or having a conversation with myself in my head, I would have chosen to stay at home and have the latter. I love philosophical discussions and using my dangerously hyperactive mind to tackle 600 things at once. Meanwhile, small talk has always felt like the opposite of that, and I’ve often found myself standing in a conversation waiting for it to be over. That is until I moved to live o

Our minds developed around stories; language and the stories we tell shape our realities and the more we can understand them, the better authors we become in our lives, in our business and, hopefully, in our contribution to the world.

Our brains love patterns, shortcuts, and feeling right, which is great for surviving, but terrible for seeing what we’re missing. We cling to old experiences like safety blankets, build simple mental models and rules that feel true, and then defend them even when they’re wrong. The real magic happens when we assume we don’t know. By asking “what if I’m wrong?” or imagining how someone with totally different experiences would see things, we break out of our tiny slice of reali

In the October newsletter for Swisspreneur I spoke about the merits and drawbacks of integrating Stoicism into your entrepreneurial practice, I suggested that the core value of Stoic philosophy is its emphasis on self-reflection rather than a particular claim to virtue ethics. Then, I went on to promise that you don’t need to be a Stoic to practice this. So, in this post we’re diving into my new-found favorite tool for integrating self-reflection and managing the stress of un

It’s been almost a decade since Ryan Holiday published The Daily Stoic and yet the ancient philosophy of stoicism is still having it’s rebirth moment. Its presence feels especially dominant in the world of entrepreneurship where Stoic thought is constantly getting dropped into podcast episodes, newsletters like this one ;) and, some founders say, into their practice. I received The Daily Stoic as a gift five years ago and read it religiously every single day for four years

If you’ve been following AI news, a recent "State Of AI In Business 2025" report from MIT's Project NANDA made a stir last month by claiming that 95% of generative AI pilots are failing. Headlines everywhere from Fortune to Forbes picked this up citing the failing as an explanation for the market's unease regarding AI stocks and discussions of the "AI bubble". Now these headlines are great at generating clicks and making noise but, like leaving your keys in the ignition o