CSQ

Most organizations can tell you what their senior leaders are capable of. Succession plans, capability frameworks and performance reviews are built to answer that question. Almost none can tell you whether those leaders have the capacity to deliver what has been asked of them. Capability is what someone can do: the skills, experience and judgment they have accumulated. Capacity is whether they can reach it today, and again tomorrow.

Across corporate America, that’s an unwritten dress code: everywhere you go, there are secret curlies. You might not realize it but that’s only because they haven’t let you in on the secret. If you start looking, you’ll see that straight hair is dominant, and nearly universal as you climb the ranks. I spent more than a decade reporting on Silicon Valley before I left to investigate something I’ve been thinking about my whole life: curly hair.

Some places invite you to step away. Others give you the clarity to see what comes next. Perched 3,000 feet above The Broadmoor on Cheyenne Mountain, Cloud Camp offers both: a secluded, all-inclusive retreat where Colorado’s natural beauty, Broadmoor hospitality, and the freedom of being above the everyday come together. The journey sets the tone. Guests can ascend by chauffeured luxury vehicle, guided mule ride, or scenic hike, each creating its own sense of arrival.

The calendar turns fast once autumn hits. A cousin’s fall wedding lands the same month as the office holiday party, and both arrive right before a New Year’s Eve countdown that demands its own look entirely. Most men solve this by piecing together three different outfits from three different places. Men’s Wearhouse solves it by handling all three under one roof.

Success isn’t free. And it’s not what you think. Most people assume the price tag is money. Wrong. Money can be replaced. Time can be optimized. Visibility can be manufactured. The real cost is sacrifice. Not the motivational poster kind. The brutal, decade-long, relationship-ending kind that separates dreamers from builders. The Math Nobody Wants to Do The level of sacrifices you make depends on the level of success you’re looking to reach. Want a global empire?

Getting your team to execute is one thing. Getting them to genuinely buy in is another. The strongest leaders know that commitment can’t be mandated through titles, targets or performance reviews. It’s earned through trust, consistency and connection. When people feel understood, supported and clear about what’s expected of them, they don’t simply comply—they take ownership.

Ross McCall has spent the better part of a decade inside FIFA, starting in 2018 as head of brand strategy and business intelligence just before the Russia World Cup. In that role, he helped build the data infrastructure that reshaped FIFA’s commercial rights framework, work that fed directly into how the organization prices partnerships, evaluates sponsor performance, and proves ROI to brands writing nine-figure checks.

There are countries you visit to play golf. Then there are countries where golf simply becomes part of a much larger experience. Italy belongs firmly in the second category. Unlike Scotland, where nearly every road seems to lead to another legendary links course, or Ireland, where golf often takes center stage, Italy offers something different.

The ERP market has a well-documented problem: implementations that drag on for months, bloated systems that require armies of consultants, and software that forces businesses to work the way the software was designed, not the way the business actually operates. Intuit Enterprise Suite was built to streamline this implementation.

Early in my career, I thought opportunity was something you accumulated. If it appeared, you moved toward it. If it looked credible, you said yes. The logic was straightforward: more opportunities meant more momentum, and momentum felt like progress. For a while, it was.