Key points

There are three levels of listening: inward, around you, and the horizon.

Many leaders master one level. Real leadership is moving fluidly among all three.

Stillness builds capacity to hold complexity without being crushed by it.

I'm sitting across from a brilliant operator, the kind who's built three companies nearly from scratch, and I notice his screen saver: early morning light spilling gold across the ocean. I laughed and shared my phone screen: dawn breaking over a lake, that first blush of sun hitting the water. That shared knowledge, that we both like launching our days by anchoring ourselves in a moment of nature, we both understood the value.

He laments, "It's the only time I can hear myself think." I know exactly what he means. I nodded; it is that deep breath

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