#16 - You cannot outsource your life.
When I was building my home, I hired the best architect in the city. The design was stunning, and they promised to take total ownership to make that vision a reality. I believed them, so I walked away to focus on my business.
When I came back 4 months later, the project was a disaster. I had outsourced the vision to the company CEO, he outsourced it to his project manager, and she didn't give a damn. We ended up arguing over basic details and almost had to settle it in court. The lesson cost me time and money, but it taught me something valuable about leadership. You cannot outsource ownership.
The Illusion of Delegation
We are all busy professionals trying to buy time by buying services. But what happens when you hand off the essence, not just the tasks? You outsource the birthday present to a concierge. Convenient, efficientā€¦ and somehow hollow. You outsource raising your kid to a nanny. Support can be a blessing, but if you disappear, your child doesn't just lose time. They might lose you. You outsource your father's health decisions to a top physician. Of course, you want expertise. But would you do it without asking questions, without checking options, without being present when the complex trade-offs show up?
The Business of Abdication
Here's the uncomfortable line I keep coming back to: if the decision is substantial, you cannot outsource it. You cannot outsource who to love. You cannot outsource what kind of parent you want to be. You cannot outsource the shape of your days.
And yes, unfortunately, you cannot outsource your AI strategy, even if a premier consulting company encourages you to believe otherwise. They can help. They can accelerate. They want your money. They do not care about your survival. They can build slides that sparkle, but they cannot carry accountability for your business. That's your job.
The cost of excessive outsourcing isn't just mistakes. It's distance. Distance from the details, distance from reality, distance from consequences. Distance makes you soft. When you're not close to the work, you stop noticing early signals. You stop building judgment. You stop forming the muscle that makes hard decisions easier next time.
How to Reclaim Control
Stop running and hiding behind experts. For years, I have used a simple mental framework to navigate chaos and cut through the noise: Courage + Calm = Clarity
It works like this:
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Courage: Find the guts to own your decisions and accept that the responsibility rests on you.
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Calm: Stop running like a headless chicken. Sit still, dive deep into the problem, and understand the fundamental shifts.
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Clarity: This is the reward. When you combine the courage to own the risk with the calm to study the details, you finally see what you must do.
The Hard Truth
If I had to ground this in the AI space, I would give you one final piece of advice for you as a CEO: Fire Your Chief AI Officer.
It sounds radical, but it is necessary. You cannot outsource the very existence of your company to somebody else. You cannot paste a title on a dilemma and expect it to resolve itself. You have to own it.
You must become the architect of your own future. If you don't, someone else will design a life and a business that you won't recognize. Read more about why you need to take control here.
Your move.
