For as long as I can remember, I have always felt pushed and pulled between wanting two drastically different lives.

Polar opposite versions of myself and the way I live, and if I reach a point of achieving the semblance of one of them, I yearn deeply for the other.

Manifesting, meditating and vision boarding have aways been absolute chaos for me, because when I start to put down on paper what I want, the other life makes me feel extreme guilt for abandoning it.

I've consumed enough Instagram videos and Pinterest journal prompts telling me to “get really specific on your dream life,” and “act as if you are already living it” to have given manifestation a very fair chance. And if this really is the key to success, then hand me the high heels and the shovel, and tuck a chicken under my arm whilst I take a business call!

The problem is, every time I try one of these exercises, my dream life seems to split into different directions, leaving me with a swirling twister of contradictory images and affirmations.

At this point, I’m starting to think I have some deep-rooted issues and would be better off sitting in front of a psychiatrist than scrolling Pinterest.

I am ambitious, I want it all, but I think I need multiple lifetimes to fit it all in!

On one side of the vision board, is the version of me that runs the world! She lives the NYC high life, has her own business, sets her own schedule and has a level of mystery that is enviable!

(Ok so maybe I have been watching too many 90s/00s series and films, but I can have anything I want right?!)

She has the perfect Manhattan apartment, you know, the one with the cliche Empire State Building views, immaculate minimal kitchen with perfectly organised cupboards of spices, the walk in shower, his and her sinks, a perfect cloud of a white sofa, bougie candles and the most chic evening lighting set up as the city skyline sparkles in the background. Her wardrobe is full of Vogue worthy outfits and dinner at estiatorio Milos is just a standard week night for her.

The epitome of Manhattan living. Chic, glamorous, ever optimistic, every street corner a reminder that you can have anything you want, in a city where anything is possible. And the hard work and grind now, well that pays for the house on the Cape later.

Then there is the other version, the slow living, the one in touch with nature, the seasons and the land. Waking naturally to birdsong and soft sunlight and the views are nothing but countryside. Not a skyscraper in sight! The hydrangeas outside are perfect, the lawn is manicured and rushing feels like a crime.

Days filled with watering the plants, feeding the fluffy white Silkies (an utterly adorable chicken variety btw), and checking on the growth of all the vegetables. Wellington boots covered with morning dew drops and plans of baking and cooking for the afternoon. The perfect Martha Stewart homemaking vision. A life lived seasonally, with warm homemade cinnamon rolls in the autumn, and cosy candlelight and foraged Christmas decorations in the winter.

I am lucky, I have a beautiful life and I am deeply grateful. But I am wondering if this conflicting personality of mine is a unique experience, or if there are others that share this confusion?

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The two lives feel so incompatible but I wonder daily if there is a way I can have them both, or do I have to commit to one and then transition to the other?

If you feel the same way, you may also share the deeply ingrained fear that picking one means losing the other forever.

I think much of this has to do with my upbringing and being a “Third Culture Kid”. I was brought up in many different countries, went to many different schools and when I returned “home”, I never felt like I fit in.

I was bullied, I had a “weird” international accent and wore a coat year round because I couldn’t adjust to living in a damp climate again. It didn’t help that where we lived, albeit it incredibly beautiful, was very rural, and many of the locals didn’t have a passport and believed speaking a second, god forbid, third language, had to be witchcraft!

It wasn’t until University that I found my people again, with similar upbringings and experiences.

I found home in others because where was home anyway? There was no judgement and I could be myself. Meeting other people that had this “eternal wanderer” inside them felt less lonely.

And now, as I get older, there seems to be a subconscious sense of panic that comes out of nowhere at times and leaves me feeling unsettled.

Maybe now with older parents, it has made me conscious of our finite time on earth. As a result wanting to live it all, and experience as much as I can is constantly on my mind.

I haven’t got the answers yet as to how I can fit many lifetimes into one, but I am sure as hell going to try to do it! I want a rich life full of wonderful experiences, great food, and seeing and appreciating the incredible planet we live on.

Maybe there will come a day where I can reconcile it all and have the perfect blend.

But, in the meantime, I am going to follow my heart, and my gut (she knows best) and make decisions that even if they appear odd, are what will take me in the right direction.

If you feel the same I would love to hear your thoughts and how you navigate this. x

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Hello Sarah,

I hope you are well and having a good week so far.

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to follow up on the proposal I sent across last week, as I wasn’t sure if you had had a chance to take a look, and whether you might have any initial thoughts.

I appreciate you are incredibly busy at the moment, so absolutely no rush, but if you could possibly take a look at the attached and let me know if you have any feedback, that would be hugely appreciated. Ideally, it would be great to have any thoughts by Friday, although I completely understand if that isn’t possible.

Apologies for chasing and please do let me know if there is anything further I can provide in the meantime. More than happy to help where I can.

Many thanks, and apologies again for the nudge.

Best,

YIKES! I am sure the above sounds a little too familiar to us all!

The other day I found myself trapped in this exact vicious cycle of trying to write an email just like the above, and after 30 minutes I said enough is enough!

An email is not a Peace Treaty!

I think we as women are often very conscious of how we are being perceived. We want to be seen as competent but also nice. Direct, but not too direct. Confident, but not intimidating. Helpful, put not a pushover.

In the past, by the time I had finished the excruciating process of writing and re writing my emails, I usually wanted to add the caveat: Please find attached: My remaining self respect.

I have worked hard to build my email confidence and learn that being clear doesn’t mean being difficult, and being direct doesn’t mean being rude.

So, if you are ready to elevate your email game, here are a few things that have helped me…

1. Stop saying “just”

“Just wanted to check” “Just wondering if” “Just a quick one” “Just following up”

A strong female manager once asked me why I kept adding “just’ to all my emails and whether it was really adding anything, other than making me feel more comfortable.

It is ok to ask a question, make a request or follow something up. You are not inconveniencing someone by communicating.

Try instead:

“ I wanted to check”

Or even better,

“Have you had a chance to look at…”

It might feel uncomfortable at first, but there is confidence in being clear and concise.

2. Stop apologising

“Sorry to chase” “Apologies for the reminder” “Sorry to bother you again"

This is a big one. If someone hasn’t responded to you, you do not have to apologise for following up and doing your job. Unless you have physically turned up to their house, you probably don’t need to say sorry!

Try instead:

“Following up on the below”

Or:

“Just bringing this back to the top of your inbox.”

No apology. No guilt. You are following up, not declaring war!

3. Put the ask where people can find it

If your recipient has to dig through three paragraphs or niceties before discovering what you want from them, you have made their job harder than it needs to be.

Try instead:

“Could you review the proposal and send me your feedback by Friday?”

Make the ask visible and early, then give them the context. If you have several requests, bullet point them to make the actions needed clear.

Making it easy for people to do what you need is an underrated professional skill.

4. You don’t have to write like a man

“Noted” “Please advise” “FYI”

Confidence does not mean stripping every bit of warmth or personality out of your emails. You don’t need to turn into a corporate robot who communicates exclusively in acronyms, one word emails, or no sign off. You can be warm, friendly and be yourself. Just don’t confuse being nice with being vague. You can be both kind and clear.

5. Everyone’s busy you don’t need to remind them

“I know you are incredibly busy” “I appreciate you have a lot on” “I understand you have other priorities”

They might be absolutely overwhelmed, but chances are so are you. Their workload is for them to factor in and it isn’t your job to pre-emptively manage this.

Don’t hand people excuses before they have failed to meet a deadline. If a deadline matters, make that very clear. If it doesn’t really matter, then don’t manufacture false urgency.

Try instead:

“Could you send this back to me by Friday?”

Or:

“Could you send this over by 3pm today?”

6. Delete the email equivalent of nervous laughter

“If that makes sense” ‘“Hopefully that is ok” “No worries if not” “Apologies again”

You do not need to finish every email by reassuring the recipient that you are, in fact, a good person. If what you have written makes sense, that should be enough.

If something isn’t ok, or is unachievable, then let them tell you. I promise you will survive by just sending a standard polite sign off.

7. Read your emails as if someone else wrote them

Imagine a colleague sent you the email you are about to send. What would you think of it?

We are often very critical of ourselves and will scrutinise our own tone far more heavily than we would someone else’s.

So before you rewrite the sentence for the third time, ask yourself: Is this rude, or am I just uncomfortable being direct?

So what does the non-hostage email actually look like:

Hi Sarah,

Following up on the proposal I sent last week. I’d be grateful if you could review the attached and send me any feedback by Friday.

If there’s anything else you need from me in the meantime, let me know.

Thanks,

That’s it. No apology, no “just” and absolutely no emotional support package!

Being clear is not the same as being difficult, and although changing an email style may feel really uncomfortable in the beginning, it will save you a lot of time and anxiety when you realise it’s really not that deep.

You can write emails that are warm, thoughtful and collaborative, that still include the occasional exclamation mark. But you don’t have to write every email as though you are trying to convince the recipient not to report you to the police.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an email to send…

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Not a sentence I expected to write but there is something about the formidable AOC publicly documenting her egg-freezing journey, that made me think deeply about what we as women are expected to hide, and yes… sacrifice, in the pursuit of success.

AOC’s recent decision to share this incredibly personal journey has cause quite a stir. She has been very open about the process, sharing videos of her taking her injections to work, and speaking candidly about a decision she says she’d been considering for some time. By opening up about her experience, she hopes to raise awareness of the gaps in medical research surrounding women’s health and reproductive care. Ultimately, her message is one of empowerment. That women’s bodies are remarkable, and that we should have the freedom to make informed choices about our own health.

Sadly and somewhat predictably, people got weird about it. As expected there were many judgemental, flippant online comments about why she should just have a baby now, or that as a 36 year old she is already too old and too dried up (thanks to the observations of a man who I doubt is getting many offers to procreate!) There were also plenty of questions about her priorities, and whether someone making these sorts of choices is really the right person to aspire to presidency(?!)

AOC is a powerhouse. A highly ambitious and successful woman, who no matter how you feel about her political stance, is making strong informed decisions about her reproductive future. But the fact that this has led to so many people discussing how the contents of her ovaries might tells us something about her suitability to run a country, is deeply disturbing.

So… a woman can be ambitious enough to consider running for head of state, but not so ambitious that she is allowed to make her own decisions about how, when, or whether she wants to become a mother?

Let’s imagine applying the same logic to a male politician.

“Senator, before we discuss your presidential ambitions, we’d like to understand whether your approach to fatherhood demonstrates an appropriate level of commitment to the American family.”

It sounds absurd. It is absurd.

And sadly women have been answering some variation of this questions for years. I am sure many of you reading this have become very aware that there is a strange period in a woman’s career (usually late twenties to late thirties) where you may be a valuable employee, but you are simultaneously an apparently terrifying prospect. Like a ticking baby-making-time-bomb!

As women, we spend our lives navigating different versions of ourselves as our hormones shift and change, whilst simultaneously, being expected to maintain the same stamina, energy, and capacity as those who don’t experience the complexities of the female reproductive system.

Our workforce is made up of so many women: Women who are pregnant, undergoing fertility treatment, dealing with endometriosis, having devastating miscarriages, early menopause, excruciating periods, bringing up children, being unable to conceive, or choosing not to have children at all.

Quite often our bodies are treated as if they are inconveniences to our careers, and it is one of the things I find so frustrating in the conversation of women and ambition. Women are told they can have it all, or should at least try. The big career, the family, the immaculate house, a home cooked meal on the table every night. But we as a society refuse to acknowledge that women have bodies that change whilst aspiration is happening.

Pregnancy changes you. Fertility changes you. Postpartum changes you. Periods change you. Menopause changes you. There is certainly no little box next to the Director role saying “May experience significant hormonal changes during this period.”

Instead, we expect women to keep moving upwards in a beautifully linear progression, as though their bodies have signed the same performance review as their employer. We talk about women’s careers as though they happen independently of our bodies. But the fact is they don’t. We build careers in bodies that change.

AOC’s choice to freeze her eggs is admirable and realistic. She is taking charge of a decision for her body, for her career, and for her. She has done it publicly knowing full well that the internet would have something to say about it, and has even acknowledged the political risk in sharing something so personal. Despite the criticism there are many women and girls who have been inspired by her openness, and feel supported that she is raising awareness of a topic that will only become more prevalent, as women build their empires.

The sad irony is that the men who might one day decide whether she is presidential material, will almost certainly not have their reproductive choices examined with anything like the same enthusiasm. Yet a woman’s ambition seems to come with a family-planning consultation.

AOC has started a valuable conversation for so many women building their careers, brands and lives in this new era. Women should be allowed to make complicated choices, without those choices becoming evidence of whether we are serious women, serious professionals, or serious leaders.

AOC has given us a very public reminder that even the most ambitious women are still negotiating with the realities of our bodies, and that sadly, people seem to feel they can have an opinion.

So I guess at some point, I’m going to have to sit down with my uterus and discuss where she sees herself in five years time!

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Oh to be a Middle-Aged White Man.

You know, the type. The man that can get away with no sign off on an email. The man that will challenge the CEO, confidently mispronounce someone’s name and mansplain a PDF to you all before 9:30am. He never thinks before he speaks, and has definitely never experienced living with sky-high anxiety levels, or wondering if he left his straighteners plugged in.

According to an internal Harvard Business Review note, men will apply for a job when meeting 60% of qualifications, whereas women generally apply when nearer to 100%. (I know, I know, figures have been contested, but I am pretty sure you know what I am getting at.) Someone tell me, where does this confidence come from and how on earth can I obtain it?

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to become unbearable or a chronic interrupter. I don’t want to be patronising, and I definitely do not want to have a limited wardrobe choice and never be able to wear heels again. I just want to occasionally stop considering if I might have it all wrong, or spend hours dissecting how I phrased something in a meeting.

The psychology of the Mediocre White Man is fascinating to study. As a woman, I am a chronic preparer. I research, take diligent notes, plan what I have to say in advance, and then wonder if it is even useful to say at all. (I know I’m not the only one.) Women are excruciatingly diligent, considerate and lean towards overthinking. Whereas, 45 year old Department Head, Brian, has never considered writing notes in his life, or worse still uses an AI notetaker. He will turn up late to the meeting, totally unprepared and unbothered, and still somehow everyone will nod in agreement as he contributes the odd word here or there. It is infuriating and dare I say it… quite impressive.

Over the years I have envied male colleagues who have never started an email with “Just checking…” or copious filler words of gratitude and thanks. They feel no need to over explain themselves, or feign politeness. They put on the same suit every day and turn up. They are never criticised for wearing the same thing twice, or accused of not being ‘put-together’ if their hair and makeup isn’t done. They don’t even have to ride the monthly hormonal rollercoaster of hell that comes with being a woman.

Lucky them hey? In truth, white men apparently feel more psychologically safe in the workplace than women and other marginalised groups and therefore have the permission to be themselves and perform as they wish. Many have a sense of ingrained confidence because they already feel like they belong in the room, even if they are drastically underperforming or underprepared.

I think as an ambitious woman, there is the attachment to the idea of ‘having it all together’, knowing it all first, with confidence coming as a by product of this. The imposter syndrome is rife and there is comfort in the feeling of someone’s permission to say we are ready or deserving to level up. The Middle Aged White Man, doesn’t seem to have received the same memo.

Myself and so many other women spend hours and hours of our lives debating if we are the right fit, if we are capable enough. These thoughts spin in a tornado with the other ideas of ‘Am I being too ambitious?” “Am I being too bold?” …too…too..too. Can you imagine what we could achieve if we stopped feeling less than and started to believe we could do anything we were called to do, regardless of how much more we had to learn?!

I want to be able to feel certain. To feel able to ask for something in the career realm without apology. To feel like I can be wrong, without thinking my entire professional reputation has collapsed. Or maybe just not feel as guilty when I am not my most prepared, or my most polished self.

So no, I don’t actually want to become a middle aged man, white or not. But maybe trying to embody the spirit of Brian is the real way to become more confident.

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Your career is likely to be shaped by a collective of women who will be there in many different moments and play many different roles. Some will be ahead of you, some beside you and some younger than you. Noticing them and making space for them is going to enhance your experience, and help you survive the tough times. Finding your tribe as you navigate the journey is just as important as the end goal.

The Women you’ll meet along the way

As your career develops, so does the cast of women around you. At 24 you might need someone to tell you, that you are in fact, good at your job and you can stop apologising every time you speak in a meeting. At 34, you might need someone to ask you whether you even like your job anymore, or if you have just gotten really good at pretending. There are however a few characters who tend to appear throughout all of our careers.

So let’s meet the cast…

The Work Sister

She is the person who makes a new job feel a little less daunting and a bit more fun. She brings you unexpected snacks, exciting finds from the stationary cupboard and tells you stories about her weekend. She knows every piece of office history that was not in the official onboarding. She has been there long enough to know how everything works, who to ask, who to avoid and where the best lunch spots are. She is more than a colleague. She makes you feel included, looked after and like you have someone in your corner. Every career needs a Work Sister.

The Tough Love Mentor

She might be your boss or manager. She may seem a little intimidating at first, but once you show that you respect her standards and they way she works, she will invest heavily in you. She will teach you, coach you and give you room to learn. She will however push you when she thinks you can do more. She will give you responsibility before you feel fully ready, and will help you build the confidence that comes from it. You will not always love what she tells you, but you will be grateful that she did.

The North Star

She is the woman you look at and think I want to do that. She has built something that makes you see more possibilities for yourself. She has taken risks, stayed strong in her values and beliefs, and been brave enough to put herself forward when it would have been easier to stay comfortable. She could be a mentor, a friend, or someone you haven’t even met. What matters is what she represents. She makes the unfamiliar feel possible and reminds you that there is no single formula for building an ambitious life.

The Truth Teller

She is the woman who will tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you want to hear. She will tell you when you are playing it too safe, when you are making excuses, and when you have outgrown the environment you are in. She is honest, direct and will not wrap useful advice in unnecessary packaging. You will trust her, because you know what she says is coming from a good place. She wants you to do well. Every ambitious women needs a Truth Teller who can occasionally say ‘Is this actually what you want?’

The Advocate

She sees something in you before you have quite worked out how to articulate it. She recognises your ability, spots your potential and is willing to put some of her own credibility behind you. She might introduce you to someone, recommend you for an opportunity, or suggest a direction you might not have considered. She will put your name in the rooms where you deserve to be. The best Advocates are not just generous with introductions, they genuinely want to see you progress and will help you to do so.

The Co-Pilot

She is figuring it all out at the same time as you, which is precisely why she matters. She understand the mix of ambition, uncertainty and panic that comes with building a career, and trying to figure out what you really want. She is the person you can compare notes with, send a slightly unhinged voice note to, and celebrate with, when it starts to go your way. She will grow alongside you, and keep you grounded. She may not have all the answers, but she will be asking the same questions.

The Wildcard

She is the woman whose career doesn’t make sense but seems to work. She has changed industries, started a business, taken on an unexpected opportunity and combined several interests you assumed should remain separate. She doesn’t follow a five year plan. She shows you what can happen when you are willing to take a different route, change your mind or follow the unexpected. She makes change feel ok and that there is no one way to succeed.

Ambition Needs Company

Something I have come to discover whilst navigating the twist and turns of my career is that community is powerful, and no matter how much of a lone wolf you think you are, you will ultimately need these women around you. Not just for the hard truths, but for the hard days and the wonderful ones.

You need to have women you can call when you’re excited, lost or underselling yourself.

You need women who will celebrate you without comparison.

You need women whose careers look different to yours.

You need women who are further ahead of you.

You need women who are beside you.

You need women who are just getting started.

The best careers are rarely built alone. They are always easier to navigate with a tribe around you, women who see the road from a different angle, or who are invested enough in your success to tell you when you are ready for more. They will challenge your thinking, sharpen your instincts and occasionally stop you from making a spectacularly bad decision!

And one day, without noticing it, you will find yourself becoming one of these women for someone else, or a little of all of them. You will learn to back someone before she is entirely confident. You will get better at giving advice that is constructive. You will share information, make introductions and open doors. You will also become increasingly comfortable admitting that (despite your job title), you do not have all the answers!

So pay attention to the women you meet on the way. Notice the ones who challenge you, champion you, and tell you the truth. Keep them close, learn from them and when your turn comes, be the woman who does the same for someone else.

I would love to hear about the women who have inspired, championed and challenged you…

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The Fastest Growing Sport in America

A modern Formula 1 race weekend feels less like attending a sporting event and more like entering a carefully engineered luxury microclimate, built around visibility, aspiration and status. It exists at the intersection of elite sport, celebrity culture, fashion, finance and entertainment.

Formula 1 has always traded in glamour, but America has amplified the spectacle dramatically. Las Vegas arrived on our screens in 2023 wrapped in neon excess, fountain shows and most recently a Mickey Mouse guest appearance! Celebrity cameos became part of the televised infrastructure and drivers and their WAGs have evolved into lifestyle figures as much as any other athlete.

And yet, beneath all the theatre, Formula 1 has achieved something strategically remarkable. It achieved the American Dream! Or perhaps, more accurately, it has become culturally visible in a way it had never fully managed before in the United States.

For many years the sport had struggled to break meaningfully into the US market. Although it carried prestige, it had until now felt technically dense, rooted culturally in Europe and difficult to access casually, unless you had some understanding of the ecosystem and key players surrounding it.

… but then came Drive to Survive!

The series has transformed an inaccessible world into something more aspirational and person centric. Rivalries were transformed into narratives that everyone could understand, and drivers became household names across the world.

As someone deeply interested in growth strategy and how ambitious brands scale, as well as being part of the F1 fandom from the age of about 4, I find the F1 expansion into America fascinating as it represents something much larger than just a sport taking off in another time zone. This shift has become one of the clearest modern examples of what happens when storytelling, visibility and aspiration align at extraordinary speed (no pun intended)!

However, visibility and cultural permanence are not necessarily synonymous with one another. A distinction that now becomes increasingly important as Formula 1 continues to accelerate deeper into the American market.

The ‘Netflixification’ of Sport

One of the most important elements about F1’s rise in America was that newer fans did not initially fall in love with the sport itself (an element many diehard fans find to be sacrilege). Instead, it was the people and the storytelling surrounding it. Drive to Survive made Formula 1 emotionally accessible, before it made it technically understood.

For many years the sport had operated with a level of intimidating exclusivity and the behind the scenes were accessible to very few. It rewarded technical understanding, long term loyalty, and long-term investment. Although there has been a huge amount of prestige in this exclusivity, there was also an element of limitation. To expand, there was going to have to be an aspect of releasing control and widening the market. But how? Well, Netflix changed the game entirely.

With the rise of media giants like Netflix turning sports into reality style viewing, modern sport is increasingly operating in a new form of the entertainment realm, and emotional accessibility is mattering more than just the sporting product itself.

People attach to stories before they attach to systems. Especially in America where entertainment value and personality-driven shows dominate modern audience viewing behaviours.

Visibility Is Not Loyalty

As F1 has become visible in America at breakneck speed, we must acknowledge that cultural roots are going to take longer to cultivate. Netflix has shown you can engineer visibility surprisingly fast, but loyalty, in the longterm, is somewhat slower.

This is not just the Drive to Survive phenomenon, but something that is a part of many growth stories in the modern media and tech driven world. A soldout event doesn't equal a loyal audience. A trending cultural moment does not automatically mean it is going to become sustainable. Modern audiences are moving fast and trends are accelerating this lack of attention span.

F1s American expansion feels caught between two very different forms of the fandom: the deeply invested sporting audience and the culturally adjacent spectacle audience. The first is there for the racing history, and long-term loyalty. Neither audience is inherently the better fan and both carry enormous commercial value for the sport. Yet, sustainable sporting culture is rarely built just on spectacle. The cultural trend cycle in American is consumer led and commercialised boldly and aggressively, but can also be replaced just as quickly.

When Growth Starts Changing the Product

So at what point does scaling begin to alter the very thing the original fans loved?

Investable growth will change the dynamic of a product, and with American at the helm the change will be big! The sport has become louder and more entertainment-driven. It has had the showbiz glitter sprinkled on it, as seen with capitalising on momentum with the F1 movie. Everything is more deliberate, more cinematic and more commercialised.

Influencer culture has been folded into the Formula 1 ecosystem where visibility and experience are now intertwined. Race weekends now operate as social currency, more than sporting attendance. F1 is photogenic. The hospitality suites and buzz of the Grid walk are a red carpet, fashion show, and photoshoot all rolled into one.

Some may see this as a criticism, but F1 leadership has understood the modern media and audience exceptionally well. The sport has recognised it needs to try to shift from a legacy institution and actively engineer visibility, with passive prestige no longer being enough.

The challenge is balancing audience growth with preserving the depth and identity that created the loyalty in the first place.

In many ways F1 is reflecting the global business trend of wanting explosive growth. With the “viral” culture that has been cultivated, brands want hyper-scale and cultural dominance! The pressure everywhere is bigger and better, not just America.

Modern businesses often optimise heavily for reach, because it is tangible and measurable. It performs well for investors and media headlines as well as financial reporting, and creates the appearance of momentum. Yet building a loyal fan base and committed community takes longer, as cultural permanence on a mega scale does not happen over night.

Whilst moments like the Drive to Survive can generate extraordinary spikes of attention, they can also cause an infrastructure to become fragile if the emotional connection is not grounded enough to survive the trend cycle.

The Difference Between Attention and Attachment

However, none of this means that Formula 1’s American expansion is failing. Far from it. In many ways, it has been one of the most interesting and impressive modern sports growth stories.

They need now is to maintain and sustain cultural relevance, rather than just generate cultural excitement.

Visibility can be engineered remarkably fast, but cultural permanence rarely can.

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Organisations love the idea of ambitious people.

We’ve all read the same polished job descriptions, full of shiny promises and aspirational vocabulary:

“We are looking for an innovator”

“We want an exceptional leader”

“You will spearhead…’

“You will champion…”

Fast forward multiple interviews, one job offer, and about six months in the role, and you start noticing a few… let’s call them creative inefficiencies. Gaps, workarounds, and entire systems held together by hope and spreadsheets.

So naturally, you start making suggestions.

At first, it’s subtle. Polite nods and frozen smiles. An undertone that says, interesting… but no.

Then come the familiar phrases:

“No, we don’t really do it like that here.”

“That’s how it has always been done”

“We can’t really change that system”

Congratulations, your innovative approach has already reached its first corporate roadblock, punctuated with the words “let’s circle back on that one”!

…

Modern companies position themselves as places that reward bold thinking, disruption and ambitious leadership. Entire brands are built around the promise of fast-moving cultures, driven by intelligent people doing meaningful work.

So why say they want someone who is exceptional or an innovator? When in reality, they will proceed in the way the company always has, regardless of outcome or efficiency.

In theory it should be simple, ambitious companies should naturally want ambitious individuals to work for them. Growth in any form requires momentum, and innovation requires challenge! Strong cultures require people willing to question what already exists, in order to make them even better.

Sadly, the reality of many organisations is often far more conflicted. Whilst companies admire ambition conceptually, they are usually uncomfortable with the operational reality, that a courageous individual offers once they arrive.

So what happens once you start pointing out the inefficiencies, or suggesting that certain things could be done differently for the benefit of all? What happens when you push a little harder? Suggest that just because something has always been done a certain way, does not necessarily mean that it is working particularly well?

After all, isn’t this exactly what you were hired to do?

But upon your suggestions and new ideas, you start to sense the atmosphere shift in meetings. There’s a tangible discomfort in the room when you speak. Changes in tone. Shuffling on seats. Then eventually comes the ‘ping’ of a polite but carefully worded email (likely run by HR), designed to remind you what the boundaries are.

See the contradiction?

Many ambitious organisations want challengers who challenge quietly. Disruptors who remain socially convenient. Strong personalities that never create friction.

Ambition is Easier to Admire from a Distance

Organisations like the idea of ambition in the abstract.

Schmidt famously described Steve Jobs as an undeniable Diva. Not as an insult, but as someone who drove Apple to greatness through unusually high standards, intensity and conviction, elevating the company above the rest. Something many are striving for, but few understand. If you can drop your ego and work with the “Divas”, rather than against them, and harness their energy, change made with these characters driving it can be powerful.

On the surface it is quite an uncomfortable idea. Organisations instinctively associate these personalities with disruption and arrogance. “Difficult people”, individuals who create friction inside corporate environments.

Sometimes, to be fair, that instinct is correct. Not every disruptive personality is a visionary. Some people create chaos without contribution and can confuse arrogance with capability. But organisations often fail to distinguish between genuinely disruptive behaviour, and the discomfort that highly capable people naturally create, by refusing to quietly adapt to weak systems.

They can unveil indecision, weak leadership, complacency and operational inefficiencies. This level of visibility can become deeply uncomfortable inside organisations that seek to squash ambition, or have ego led characters at the helm.

In this case, often removing the person becomes easier than confronting what they have revealed about the system itself.

When Ambition becomes Visible

So why is it that these characters push buttons that make those at the top so twitchy?

It is not as nefarious as it sounds, and often is quite simple on the surface. Operationally they can uncover so many holes. The more ambition becomes visible, the more socially complicated it becomes.

Altering the dynamics of an organisation is unsettling. These individuals move quickly, take up space confidently, and raise standards… and not everybody experiences that energy as inspiring.

For some it creates comparison pressure. For others, it exposes insecurity or passivity sitting beneath not only them, but the company as a whole.

Ambition stops being admired and starts becoming managed.

Labels begin to appear, “too intense”, “too direct”, “too much”.

But what is interesting is how often these reactions emerge not from failure or incompetence, but visibility itself. Visible ambition has a tendency to unsettle environments built around maintaining equilibrium.

These individuals often alter the emotional dynamics of a meeting, boardroom, or office, prompting discomfort or challenge in others, an outcome that says less about them, and more about the system itself.

Growth Rarely Happens Comfortably

Modern organisations publicly position themselves as places that reward bold thinking and exceptional talent. Entire brands are often built around the promise of a ‘fast-moving culture” or “fast-paced environment” (phrases that personally, make red flags flap violently in my mind like plastic office plants caught in a corporate hurricane).

But underneath the surface, these organisations are often far more conflicted, and these ambitious individuals tend to blow the concept of fast-moving culture out of the water when it starts to become reality.

Tenacity and drive quite often come with change. These people have bold ideas, new ways of thinking and want to make archaic systems efficient.

Companies frequently want the appearance of ambitious culture whilst still preserving the emotional stability of predictability and control. They want to be seen as forward thinking on the outside, but are gripping tightly underneath.

The irony, and what many companies fail to see, is that they genuinely need these people. As Schmidt says, not because they are always easy to work with, but because '“Divas” move systems forward.

These personalities often help to accelerate decision making, challenge complacency and expose operational flaws long before metrics do. They create pressure inside systems that have learnt to tolerate inefficiency.

High-growth environments are rarely built by agreeable people protecting comfort at all costs. Instead they are often shaped by those willing to create friction, or put their heads above the parapet, in pursuit of building something larger.

Many organisations want the outcomes these people create without wanting the organisational discomfort that accompanies them.

Building Organisations Capable of Ambition

Perhaps the real challenge for ambitious organisations is not finding exceptional people, but building cultures emotionally mature enough to work alongside ambition once it arrives. Cultures capable of tolerating challenge without interpreting it as disloyalty. Cultures secure enough to understand that questioning systems is not necessarily criticism of the people who built them, but often a desire to strengthen, evolve and push them further.

Because the people most capable of driving meaningful growth rarely arrive simply to maintain what already exists. And whilst not every “Diva” is a visionary, ambitious organisations often make the mistake of suppressing the very people capable of pushing them beyond their current limits.

The irony is that growth itself rarely exists inside comfort. Most meaningful progress begins at the point where systems, people and organisations are forced beyond what feels familiar, controlled or safe.

The most successful are usually the ones capable of distinguishing between destructive chaos and productive discomfort that ambition inevitably creates.

The companies that achieve greatness are often the ones that are brave enough to hire the “Divas”, and wise enough not to silence them once they arrive.

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I have always been fascinated by the confusion and conflict that strong, ambitious characters can ignite inside corporate environments. Delving into the world of ambitious companies, ambitious people and the hidden and human systems that shape them is what The Ambition Layer will be all about.

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On paper, it should be simple. Companies want to succeed and therefore would want the best talent, and the most driven and honest personalities to do this.

In reality, and from my experiences, it is rarely that straightforward.

Working as a CGO and across previous business development roles, I have seen companies striving for growth, all whilst struggling operationally, regressing culturally and fracturing beneath the pressure to scale.

Born from this is the fascination about not just growth itself, but what sits underneath. The systems, structures, personalities, tensions and invisible dynamics that determine whether organisations actually function as they develop.

The longer I have worked in some of these environments, the more I have realised that most organisational problems begin long before they become measurable.

You can usually feel them bubbling under the surface… in communication, ownership, leadership, decision-making (or lack of, in all these cases) as well as people compensating manually for systems that are out paced by lofty ambition.

I am deeply interested in how organisations scale and grow….

How do you take a new idea and form it into success? And on the reverse, how do you take an established but stagnant idea and reinvigorate it? What habits determine whether growth becomes sustainable or chaotic?

But equally, I am interested in people….

Why are “strong characters” in the workplace often perceived in a negative light? And why has “strong” become such a dirty word? Who are the people capable of moving companies forward, challenging systems, raising standards and pioneering ideas?

And finally, the concept of Ambition….

Who is allowed to express it comfortably? Who gets rewarded for it? Who gets labelled as difficult because of it?

As a woman, I am especially aware that ambition can often still be interpreted through very different lenses depending on who is carrying it.

This tension feels particularly relevant in modern work cultures that celebrate ambition publicly, while often struggling operationally with the personalities and intensity that ambition can require.

I started The Ambition Layer because I wanted a space to explore these ideas more openly. I want to bring my experience and perspective to Founders, Operators, Startups and Businesses looking to think differently about growth, execution, leadership and structure as well as their “strong’” people.

Some of these pieces will explore what ambition means in the modern world, how it is expressed, constrained and interpreted.

Some will look at leadership, culture, scaling pressure and the realties of growth.

Others will focus specifically on women and ambition, and why, still, in many environments, ambition is perceived differently depending on who it belongs to.

All of them will begin from the same underlying question:

What actually holds ambitious organisations, and ambitious people together beneath the surface?

Welcome to The Ambition Layer! `