⚖️ Pivot, Persist, or Let Go: The New Discipline of Adaptive Leadership
As a change leader you may put yourself at risk: "...if I push for this necessary change, or this beneficial innovation, I'm probably not going to be very popular."
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This Issue in 30 seconds
- 💎 The Open Palm Mindset:
True resilience for change leaders comes from learning to let go — of old plans, roles, and assumptions — so you can pivot quickly when life or work shifts unexpectedly. - 🧭 Pivot Power:
Being able to pivot gracefully is a learnable skill: it’s grounded in curiosity, humility, and readiness to learn or re-learn as new opportunities emerge. - 🌿 Freedom through Release:
Holding ambitions and outcomes too tightly can trap you. As Ralph’s father taught: “Hold the things of this life in an open palm—if you grab them, they grab you back.” - ⚖️ Persist vs Pivot:
Wisdom lies in knowing the difference—persist when growth still depends on you; pivot when something’s truly gone or complete. - ☁️ Centralized vs Decentralized Tech:
The latest AWS outage reignited debate about dependency on centralized infrastructure and spurred fresh validation for decentralized physical-infrastructure networks (DePIN). - 🤖 Automation and Inequality:
From warehouse robots to robotaxis, automation is accelerating. Economists warn that workforce hollowing and inflated valuations could set the stage for a correction echoing 1929. - 🦋 The Butterfly Thief – Human Nature and Obsession:
Even beauty and curiosity can lead to excess. The story of Colin Wyatt reminds us that unchecked desire—whether for innovation or collection—can distort purpose.
[perspective]
Change Leadership: The Open Palm Mindset
When you're a change leader, sometimes you may put yourself at risk: you may have this moment of realization: wow if I push for this necessary change, or this beneficial innovation, I'm probably not going to be very popular.
When you’re a change leader, you often face moments where doing what’s right can put you in a very uncomfortable position. Staying grounded and moving forward without fear or resentment takes a special kind of resilience.
There's a secret to this special kind of resilience. I want to share with you something my dad taught me when I was younger. It has stayed with me all my life, helping me develop and strengthen my ability to pivot.
Some of your greatest opportunities will come to you after unexpected change. Will you be ready to take full advantage of the new opportunities being presented to you? That all depends on your ability to pivot. This certainly has been a theme for my own life, and most others I know.
What does Pivot Power mean?
It means being able to let go of:
- Old Plans - things you were planning to do
- Grievances - things you wish others had or hadn't done,
- Regrets - things you wish you had or had not done
It means being open:
- Recognizing you don't know everything
- Being curious and ready to learn or re-learn
- Plunging into what's next
When life brings you unexpected change, letting go of the old and embracing the new is the key to moving to the next level.
This can be very difficult. So its important to learn how to on-ramp into this kind of thinking and working.
What's the thought that makes this doable?
An Open Palm
Pivot power, being able to pivot quickly and gracefully comes with a mindset. At the heart of this mindset is a simple lesson that my Dad told me when I was a kid. I never forgot it.
You have to understand something about my Dad. When he was 17, he left his home in Ohio, hitchhiked out west and spent a number of years working as a cowboy at various ranches. The photo of him below was taken sometime during this period of his life. Living in the elements and dealing with the sometimes harsh and unforgiving realities of life on the open range - not to mention its colorful characters - taught him ways of thinking that he carried for the rest of his life.
One of them was a simple thought that is the secret to pivot power. He told me this:
"Hold the things of this life in an open palm. Because if you try to grab onto them, they grab you back...and take away your freedom."
It's some of the wisest and most useful advice I've ever heard.
The Open Palm Mindset
Handling change in a positive and proactive way, rather than becoming overwhelmed or resistant to it, starts with that open palm mindset. The realization that whatever you have, could be taken from you at any time. Its related to the truth that everything we have is given to us for a little while. We will eventually relinquish it all.
With an open palm mindset you'll be able to pivot quickly and gracefully from one career chapter to the next opportunity. You'll be open to new ideas and ways of thinking, ready to build new relationships, while also being willing to lean on those who are there to support you through the transition.
When to persist vs when to pivot
To be clear, this isn't the same thing as "giving up too easily". Here's the difference:
- When something is truly taken away, its time to pivot.
- When something is waiting for you to complete a required set of learning and work, its time to persist.
You'll know the difference.
Putting it all together
Being able to pivot quickly and gracefully from one career chapter to the next opportunity requires a combination of adaptability, networking, and strong communication skills. But it all becomes doable with that "open palm mindset."
What may seem like the end of your greatest days, can actually be just the beginning of even greater ones.
This is one reason why S3T is so focused on helping you stay informed about emerging opportunities and giving you ways to articulate the value you'll bring to those new opportunity spaces. This helps you connect your skills and experiences to the needs of new potential employers or clients.
Reflection Assignment
As you prepare for the coming week and the months ahead, take a few minutes to reflect on these questions and jot down your notes in a place you can refer to later.
- What do I need to let go of to embrace new opportunities fully?
Consider plans, assumptions, or past disappointments that might be holding you back. How can releasing these make space for growth? - How can I cultivate curiosity and stay open to learning?
Reflect on areas where you may feel rigid or hesitant. Where might an open mind reveal new possibilities or help you see situations from a fresh perspective? - Am I clear on when to pivot versus when to persist?
Think about your current goals and projects. Where might a change in direction serve you better? And where do you feel called to stay steady and see things through?
In the week ahead, use these insights to guide your decisions, actions, and conversations. This will help build your Pivot Power and approach upcoming challenges with clarity and purpose.
Take this with you
When you’re a change leader, you will often face moments where doing what’s right can put you at risk, or put you in a very uncomfortable position. But you can stay grounded and moving forward without fear or resentment when you have that special kind of resilience, that comes from the Open Palm Mindset.
This is part of the S3T Change Leadership Learning Series.
Bonus Resources: Annual Reviews & Goals
It's that time again - time to review the year's accomplishments and start setting goals for the year ahead. Here is your game changing advice - regardless of which side of the table you're sitting on:
- The Question Top Managers Ask During Performance Reviews
- Signaling and Perspective Taking During Annual Reviews
- Incorporating Change Leadership into your Annual Reviews and Goals
[emerging tech]
☁️ Offline, online & down the line 🤖
Offline: AWS - That's Strike 3!
This week's AWS outage set off alerts at thousands of companies forcing cloud teams across the country to jump out of bed in the middle of the night and find out why all their systems were down.
The nightmare was especially bad for owners of the Eight Sleep smart beds. The temperature and incline settings rely on an app that needs a live connection to the AWS cloud. Users reported that the outage cause their beds overheat and get stuck in weird positions.
The massive outage rekindled the old debate between centralized vs decentralized apps. This is the 3rd time in 5 years that AWS contributed to a major internet meltdown.
Advocates of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) see the AWS outage as more proof that a new model is needed. See AIOZ Network for an example.
For cloud engineers: Detailed technical root cause analysis from AWS about what went wrong, and the ripple effects that made the outage so big.
Online: OpenAI is feeling like American Express
ChatGPT launched its own browser: Atlas. Mobile versions are on the way. Early testing shows it’s got potential but still a little clunky.
OpenAI is moving aggressively, building partnerships with Microsoft (making GPT5 the standard LLM for Copilot), Databricks, and notably Walmart. And now their own web browser...that's a walled garden.
Down the line: AGI is farther off than we thought…
Marcus on AI has gathered a set of data points suggesting that we are realizing that we are not as close to AGI as we thought we were.
[macro-economics]
Full Access Members: See the S3T Economic Dashboard for the Top 500+ US & International real-time economic indicators.
Automation may be starting to make a dent in the workforce
Robots
Amazon seems on track to replace 600,000 of its 1.5 million workers with robots by 2033 per internal leaked documents. To be fair the documents also show Amazon wishes to be "good corporate citizen" by donating to Toys for Tots. No mention however of Jobs for Tots Parents so they can buy Food for Tots.
Robotaxis
Waymo is piloting robotaxis in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta - with more destinations one the way (soon, London). What will Waymo adoption do to Uber's 7 million drivers?
Data suggests the global robotaxi fleet will exceed 900K by 2035...ie replacing some drivers but not all. But more robotaxi startups are entering the space; and operating costs are expected to drop from 2.31 today to 43 cents in 2035. As that happens adoption could accelerate dramatically.
A 2029 Crash?
The prospect of a hollowed out workforce is just one of the issues prompting more and more economists to voice fears of a 1929 market crash.
This India-based analysis digs into possible factors that could contribute to a crash including government debt and warns Indian investors about over reliance on US equities.
- Gita Gopinath - Professor of Economics at Harvard, former IMF chief economist
[nature notes]
🦋 The Butterfly Thief
A fascinating read about Colin Wyatt a renowned and quite charming English gentleman who turned out to be a serial museum thief - stealing thousands of rare butterfly specimens from collections around the world - and hiding them at his mothers house.
Turns out, he wasn’t really the only one. Wyatt was a reflection of something bigger.
🙏 Thank you for reading and sharing S3T with colleagues and friends! Have a great weekend and a great week ahead!
Opinions expressed are those of the individuals and do not reflect the official positions of companies or organizations those individuals may be affiliated with. Not financial, investment or legal advice, and no offers for securities or investment opportunities are intended. Mentions should not be construed as endorsements. Authors or guests may hold assets discussed or may have interests in companies mentioned.
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