Add margin

Just got back from a week at London Business School. The first thing I did when I got home?

Took Friday off. Nails done. Shopping. A workout. Read a book in the middle of the day. No Slack. No email. Quiet time to reflect and journal.

That recovery isn't the reward for the work. It's part of the work.

Lesson one: add margin

I got miserably sick for two of the five days. My body collected on a debt I'd been ignoring. The lesson wrote itself: add margin.

Most founders run with zero slack in the system. Every hour booked, every dollar deployed, every ounce of energy spent. It feels efficient right up until one small disruption knocks the whole thing over, because there was no room to absorb it.

Margin is what lets you stay standing when the unexpected hits. And in events, in building a company, in life, the unexpected always hits.

Capacity is something you protect

At OMC, the first of our five values is Capacity. Human flourishing. Energy, attention, and the ability to carry the load without breaking.

We protect the capacity of our people the way we protect cash. That sounds obvious until you notice how few companies actually do it. Most treat people's energy as infinite and their bodies as someone else's problem.

A business should expand a life, not consume it. If the company only works because the people inside it are quietly running on empty, the company doesn't actually work. It's just borrowing against the future and calling it growth.

How I'm practicing it

I've been waking up already anxious some mornings, before my feet even hit the floor. My calendar can feel like a war zone. So I'm trying things on purpose: fewer yeses and better yeses, a real morning rhythm, and recovery that's scheduled, not begged for.

I'm not great at it yet. I move fast, I say yes too quickly, I over-identify with the outcome. I know my patterns. Naming them is how I keep them from running me.

Add margin. Protect your capacity like it's the asset it is. You cannot out-system a depleted person, and you shouldn't try. People First starts with the person in the mirror.