I like solving problems. I always have.
If something is not working, my natural reaction is usually: How do we fix it? If something is unclear: How do we create clarity? If there is a difficult situation: What is the next decision?
That mindset has been incredibly valuable throughout my career. Entrepreneurship is essentially an endless sequence of problems that nobody has solved for you yet.
Customers have expectations. Teams need direction. Technology fails. Projects change. Plans that looked obvious three months ago suddenly make no sense. Someone has to make decisions.
And I have always been comfortable being that person.
But there is something I have started noticing. There is a difference between being someone who solves problems and becoming the person who feels they need to solve every problem.
That distinction sounds small. It is not.
When you build a company, particularly from an early stage, you naturally become involved in almost everything. Sales. Product. Design. Technology. Customers. Finance. Recruitment. Strategy. Sometimes even things that definitely should not require the CEO.
At the beginning, that is often necessary. The company needs speed. Someone needs to connect all the pieces. And nobody understands the whole picture better than the founders.
The challenge comes later. Because the habits that help you build something can eventually prevent it from growing.
If every decision requires you, you have not built an organisation. You have built a dependency.
That is something I think about much more today. Leadership is not proving that you can carry more than everyone else. Leadership is creating an environment where responsibility is distributed. Where people can make decisions. Where mistakes are allowed. Where knowledge does not live inside one person’s head. And where the company works even when you are not involved in every conversation.
That requires trust. And trust can be uncomfortable.
Someone else may solve a problem differently than you would. A decision may take a direction you would not have chosen. You may see something that could have been improved and deliberately choose not to intervene.
That can be surprisingly difficult for someone who has spent years solving everything.
But there is also something powerful about it. Because when you stop asking: “How do I solve this?” You can start asking: “Who should own this?”
That question changes everything. It turns problem solving into leadership. It turns employees into owners. It turns a collection of capable individuals into an organisation. And it creates something that is ultimately much stronger than one person trying to carry everything.
I still enjoy solving problems. I probably always will. But I am learning that my value as a leader cannot be measured by how many problems personally reach my desk.
Eventually, the goal should be the opposite. Build strong people. Create clear responsibility. Give people room to make decisions. And become comfortable knowing that things can work without you.
That is not losing control. It is building something that deserves to grow.