It's not about the size of your vision - it's the price.

What You’ll Learn

• The Two Fronts of Ambition Failure: Why teams fail by underestimating the path versus disagreeing on the pace and pain of the journey.

• The Co-Founder Johari Window: A powerful framework to map your team’s hidden assumptions about the work required to win.

• From Implicit to Explicit: How to proactively address changing life circumstances and unspoken fears before they fracture your leadership team.

Before we dive in: In my July newsletter, I mentioned the Ultraproductive Coaching Program by my friend and fellow author, Dr. Christian Poensgen, but the sign-up link didn't work! Here it is again, just a genuine recommendation because I think he’s doing great work.

As a refresher: He recently opened up 3 spots in his coaching program. If you're looking for support to navigate your own professional journey with more clarity and purpose, you might find it valuable.

The Story

I was recently listening to a podcast interview with Tears for Fears, the duo from Bath, England , who crafted the iconic 80s anthem, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." They were talking about their origin story and the shared ambition that brought them together. It sent me back two decades to the ghost of my own band.

We were talented, we had chemistry, and we all wanted to "make it."

But we fell apart.

For years, I told myself it was about creative friction. But listening to that interview, the real reason hit me. My band didn't fail because we had different dreams; it failed because we had a different understanding of the cost of those dreams. We all wanted the summit, but we hadn't agreed on the climb.

This is the exact dynamic that plays out in founding teams. You agree on the destination, but the venture implodes because of a silent, toxic misalignment in what each person is willing to endure to get there.

The Insight

This failure of ambition almost always happens on one of two fronts.

1. Underestimating the Path 

Teams share a common goal, but key members haven’t thought through all the steps entailed to get there. I see this constantly. A foodtech company wants to achieve national distribution. The technical founder, a genius in food science, completely underestimates the brutal commercial hustle involved in getting listed with large retailers. Meanwhile, the commercial founder, a sales veteran, doesn't remotely understand the regulatory nightmare required to get government approval to even be allowed on those shelves. They share the "what" (success) but have dangerous blind spots about the "how."

2. Diverging Expectations of the Experience 

The second front is a misalignment on the experience of the ride. This happens when one or more team members didn't truly know what to expect. It's common with first-time founders, but it also hits serial entrepreneurs entering new markets. While they might have been ready for anything at the start... lives change. An entrepreneur becomes a parent. A founder has to start caring for their own parents. A pivotal life event transforms their desire of how they want to live. The tolerance for chaos and sacrifice that existed in year one has evaporated by year four, replaced by a need for stability that was never discussed.

In both cases, the root cause is the same: The implicit assumptions were never made explicit. The conversation shifted from "how far do we want to go?" to a resentful, "is this really how we have to get there?"

Your Quick Win: Title

The Co-Founder Johari Window: An Expectation Check-In

Instead of just measuring commitment, use the Johari Window framework to map what you and your partners truly know and assume about the journey ahead. The goal is to move crucial knowledge from the hidden and blind spots into the open.

Set aside 30 minutes with your co-founder(s).

1. Open (Known to All): What do we both know are the mission-critical challenges?

• Each of you, take 5 minutes to list the top 3-5 challenges and required steps you both know are necessary to succeed in the next 12 months.

• Compare your lists. This is your current shared reality. It should be the shortest list.

2. Blind (Known to Others, Unknown to Me): What do you see that I don't?

• Ask each other this direct question: "What essential part of the journey do you think I am underestimating or don't fully appreciate?"

• Examples: "I think you underestimate how long enterprise sales cycles will be." or "I don't think you fully appreciate the technical debt we're accumulating by pushing for features this fast." Don't debate. Just listen.

3. Hidden (Known to Me, Unknown to Others): What are my hidden fears and boundaries?

• Take 5 minutes for private reflection. Answer for yourself: "What is a fear, boundary, or changing life priority I'm holding that my co-founder doesn't know about?"

• Examples: "I'm not willing to go a year without a salary again." or "My partner's health issues mean I can't travel 50% of the time anymore." or "I'm terrified I'm not the right person to lead this next phase of growth."

• This is the most difficult step. Agree to create the safety to share at least one item from this list with each other.

4. Unknown (Unknown to All): What don't we know that could kill us?

• Together, brainstorm: "What are the biggest 'unknown unknowns' that could completely derail our plan?"

• This isn't about solving them, but about acknowledging their existence. It builds a shared sense of humility and prepares you for future pivots.