The Quiet Power of Leading Yourself First
There are some books you pick up for strategy. Some for systems. And then, every once in a while, a book comes along that quietly rearranges the way you see. Not just your business, but your brain, your blind spots, and the split-second judgments that drive so many of your decisions. Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow did that for me. It’s not flashy. It’s not a “how to.” It’s a mirror. One that shows you, with startling gentleness, the mental shortcuts we use to survive — and the cost of never slowing down to question them.
As a founder, advisor, and someone who’s spent years walking beside visionaries through moments of deep clarity and deep confusion, I’ve seen how much of our leadership comes from what’s unspoken. The inner world. The mental chatter. The gut reactions. The quiet biases. This book names those. And it offers language — and space — for us to lead from a place of grounded awareness instead of autopilot.
NOTE: RCY Labs has curated a list of 52 books for Founders (2025 Edition) who care about business profitability AND impact. Don't have time to read all 52 books? We've got you! We'll read them for you, and give you the summaries, audio casts, outlines, and frameworks to apply to your business ... all FREE in the Founders' Lab Community (on Slack). Join here.
Two Systems, One Brain
Kahneman begins by breaking down our thinking into two systems. System 1 is fast, intuitive, emotional. It helps us catch a falling glass, read a room, or sense that something’s off before we can explain why. System 2 is slow, effortful, and logical. It’s the voice that pauses, analyzes, and plays devil’s advocate — not because it’s trying to be difficult, but because it wants to protect us from ourselves.
And as founders, we love System 1. We have to. It helps us respond to uncertainty and speed. It powers vision. But without intention, it also powers assumptions. And System 2? Well, it’s smart, but it’s lazy. It shows up only when invited — and even then, only if we’re paying attention.
This distinction landed hard for me during a recent strategic advisory call. A founder was preparing to pivot her offer, and she was excited — the kind of excitement that feels like momentum but is often masking something else. As we dug in, I gently asked: “Are we making this decision from clarity or urgency?” That pause opened up a conversation that hadn’t happened yet — one that needed System 2. One that helped her see that the pivot was a reaction to fear, not a vision she believed in.
That’s the power of System 2. It doesn’t take over. It just asks the questions we forget to ask.
Bias Isn’t the Problem. Unawareness Is.
One of the most humbling parts of the book is Kahneman’s exploration of biases. Not because they’re new (many of us know the terms: confirmation bias, anchoring, availability heuristic). But because he names how invisible they are — and how we often recognize them in others long before we’re willing to see them in ourselves.
Especially in startups.
Anchoring. When the first revenue goal gets thrown out and everything bends around it.
Availability. When one client’s feedback becomes “everyone thinks this.”
Confirmation. When we fish for the data that proves our own hunch.
Substitution. When we hire someone because we like them, not because they’re truly fit for the role.
Hindsight. When we convince ourselves we “knew it all along” (even though we didn’t).
Founders are particularly vulnerable here. When you're moving fast, raising capital, pitching your heart out, and trying to prove a hypothesis, the temptation to find what you want to see is so strong. And more often than not, you do.
I used to think being wrong was something to avoid. Now I see it as a door. A signal. A place to rebuild from. Kahneman reminds us that bias isn’t a flaw in character — it’s a feature of being human. And becoming a better leader means learning how to lovingly interrupt your own thinking long enough to ask, “What else might be true?”
We’re Not Wired for Risk — We’re Wired to Avoid Loss
Prospect Theory — one of Kahneman’s most cited contributions — lands like a truth we’ve always known but didn’t know how to name. The basic idea? Losses hurt more than equivalent gains feel good. We are more emotionally impacted by losing $100 than we are delighted by gaining $100. In other words, pain sticks.
This one hit especially close for me. Not because I’m risk-averse (I’m not), but because I’ve learned to respect the emotional weight of loss — especially in leadership. It’s easy to celebrate wins publicly and brush past the hard calls we’ve made behind the scenes. The team member who wasn’t a fit. The program that didn’t land. The partnership that fizzled despite best intentions.
These moments don’t just sting — they shape us. And if we’re not careful, we start building our next strategy around the avoidance of pain, not the pursuit of purpose.
In branding, this shows up in how we communicate value. We assume people want gain. But what they really want? To not be left behind. To not fail. To not waste time or money or trust. When we learn how to speak to those hidden fears with empathy — not manipulation — our message becomes medicine. Not hype.
People Don’t Remember Everything. They Remember the Story.
Another gem from Kahneman is the Peak-End Rule, which says that people don’t remember every part of an experience. They remember the most intense emotional moment and how it ended. That’s it. The rest fades.
I think about this every time a client shares how a brand made them feel. Rarely do they talk about all the details. They tell me about a single, surprising moment — or the last impression. “They really saw me.” Or: “I felt like I was just a number at the end.” It’s never about the entire timeline. It’s about the memory.
And it shows up outside of work too. Think about a retreat, a dinner, a relationship. What do you actually remember? The high point and the closing moment. Everything in between becomes context for those memories.
This has reshaped how I think about the founder journey too. The pitch isn’t just a deck. It’s a story they’ll remember. The team meeting isn’t just an update. It’s a moment to imprint culture. The last day of a contractor or team member? That’s a legacy, not a line item.
When you build with this lens — intentionally shaping peaks and endings — your work doesn’t just serve. It stays. And people don’t forget how you made them feel.
Clarity Isn’t a Trait — It’s a Ritual
Kahneman’s closing insight is deceptively simple: self-awareness isn’t about knowing more. It’s about noticing more. The problem isn’t lack of information. It’s the lack of reflection.
I’ve built entire businesses on clarity. But even I have to catch myself when I slip into motion over meaning. When I start checking boxes instead of asking better questions. When the calendar fills faster than the vision can catch up.
So I’ve learned to build rituals around slowing down. Silent thinking hours. Journaling prompts that ask what I’m avoiding. Decision journals for big calls. Not because it makes me perfect — but because it makes me present. And I’d rather be present and a little uncertain, than certain and completely disconnected from my why.
This is the work. Not just building the company. But building the clarity muscle that lets you see the company you’re building — and become the kind of leader who can hold it.
You Don’t Need a New Playbook. You Need a Clearer Lens.
Daniel Kahneman doesn’t give us tactics. He gives us truths. The kind we’ve felt for years but didn’t always know how to name. He invites us into a slower, more courageous kind of leadership — one that doesn’t just outthink the competition, but outfeels them. That builds not from urgency, but from understanding.
If you’re a founder reading this — especially one moving fast, leading deep, and wrestling with the weight of your own brain — know this: Your brain isn’t broken. It’s brilliant. But brilliance without reflection is just noise. So pause. Invite System 2 in. Ask better questions.
And let clarity become your strategy.
Because the future you’re building? It needs more than speed.
It needs you — fully present, fully human, and awake to what you’re actually thinking.
That’s how we build better.
That’s how we lead well.
That’s how we go slow… to go far.
NOTE: RCY Labs has curated a list of 52 books for Founders (2025 Edition) who care about business profitability AND impact. Don't have time to read all 52 books? We've got you! We'll read them for you, and give you the summaries, audio casts, outlines, and frameworks to apply to your business ... all FREE in the Founders' Lab Community (on Slack). Join here
