Some things in business should never be learnt the hard way.

Dear Founder,

If you are reading this, chances are you are building something that matters.

Perhaps it is a startup that began with nothing more than an idea. Perhaps it is a business that carries the hopes of your family, your employees or your investors. Whatever your journey, I already know one thing about you: you have made decisions that no one else could make for you.

Some of those decisions have probably shaped the future of your business. Others may still be weighing on your mind today. That is the reality of leadership: the greater the responsibility, the fewer perfect answers we are given.

Over the past four decades, I have had the privilege of leading multinational organizations, working alongside governments, entrepreneurs, investors and boards, negotiating complex projects and building businesses across different industries and countries. Those experiences have been deeply rewarding. They have also been humbling.

Looking back, the greatest lessons of my career were never learnt in moments of certainty. They were learnt in moments of uncertainty, when the information was incomplete, every option carried risk and a single decision could change the future of a company. Those moments shaped me far more than success ever did.

For many years I believed experience was the most valuable asset an executive could possess. It took me almost forty years to realise that experience alone changes very little. I have met people with decades of experience who keep making the same mistakes, and others with far fewer years who show remarkable clarity under extraordinary pressure. That realisation left me with a question I could never quite let go of:

How different would parts of my own journey have been if, at the most important moments of my career, someone had challenged my thinking before I made my biggest decisions?

Not to make those decisions for me, or to tell me what was right or wrong, but simply to ask the questions that only experience knows to ask. That single question became the reason Executive Intern was created.

I did not create Executive Intern because the world needs another consulting firm, or another coaching or mentoring practice. There are already many outstanding professionals in those roles. Executive Intern was born from a different belief: that organizations rarely fail because people lack intelligence, and more often because important decisions are made without enough perspective, enough challenge or enough benefit of experience.

Every important decision deserves more than instinct. It deserves thoughtful challenge, experienced perspective and the chance to be examined before its consequences become reality. That is what I hope Executive Intern will become: a place where founders and leaders think more clearly, challenge their own assumptions, see possibilities they had not considered, and make stronger decisions for the people who depend on them.

If the lessons of four decades can help another founder avoid years of unnecessary mistakes, if one conversation can strengthen one important decision, then every success I have celebrated and every setback I have endured will have served a purpose far greater than my own career.

Thank you for being here. I hope our paths will cross, and I look forward to meeting you.