The Climbing Plant That Refused to Give Up

A few days ago, while spending time in nature, I noticed a climbing plant growing beside a tree. Its roots were not directly underneath the trunk, where you might expect them to be, but around thirty centimetres away. Between the plant and the tree was an empty space, with no obvious support to guide it upwards and no guarantee that it would ever reach anything strong enough to hold it. Somehow, however, it had continued growing until it reached the first branch, wrapped itself around it and began climbing towards the light. What struck me most was the lower part of its stem. It looked old, dry and almost dead, and had I only glanced at it, I might have assumed that its life was over. Yet when I followed the stem upwards, I saw something completely different. Above the first branch, fresh shoots were spreading in every direction, covered in green leaves and full of life. The part that looked lifeless from below was still carrying and supporting everything growing above it. What made me stop and look at it for longer was how familiar the image felt. For a long time, I also associated being capable with being able to carry more. In business, that was often rewarded. If something needed to be solved, I solved it. If more responsibility came my way, I took it. From the outside, that can look like strength, and for many years I probably saw it that way too. What I understand differently today is that the qualities that help us succeed can become difficult to question precisely because they have worked so well. Being reliable, ambitious and willing to take responsibility are not the problem. The problem starts when we no longer know where those qualities end and our identity begins. I see the same pattern in many founders, executives and entrepreneurs. From the outside, they may appear strong, successful and completely in control. They run businesses, lead teams, solve complex problems and continue to deliver results, while privately becoming increasingly tired. The work may no longer give them the same energy, but they keep going because being capable and dependable has become such an important part of who they are. Yet behind that image, some of them are deeply tired. They may still be delivering results, but the work no longer gives them the same energy. They may be achieving more than ever while enjoying it less than they once did, and they often continue because being reliable, capable and strong has become such an important part of their identity that they no longer know how to operate differently. This is one of the reasons burnout can be difficult to recognise. It does not always look like someone suddenly becoming unable to work. Sometimes it looks like a person who continues to perform exceptionally well while gradually disappearing from their own life.

When strength becomes part of our identity

Many entrepreneurs learn early that hard work creates results. When something does not work, they try harder. When a problem appears, they solve it. When the business needs more, they give more. In the early stages of building a company, this is often exactly what is required, because entrepreneurial success depends on courage, persistence, personal responsibility and the willingness to keep moving even when the outcome is uncertain. The difficulty begins when these qualities stop being tools we use and become an identity we feel obliged to protect. We begin to see ourselves as the person who never lets anyone down, who always finds a solution, who can carry more than everyone else and who does not need support. Over time, that identity can become restrictive, because rest starts to feel unproductive, delegation feels risky, a quiet week creates anxiety and slowing down feels dangerously close to losing momentum. This is why burnout prevention for entrepreneurs cannot be reduced to better time management. A more efficient calendar may create structure, but it cannot address the belief that our value depends on how much we can carry or how exhausted we are willing to become. At some point, the more important question is no longer simply how we can organise our work more effectively, but who we believe we must be in order to deserve success.

The identity that built the business

Evey business is shaped by the identity of the person leading it. In the early stages, the founder is often involved in almost everything. They sell, organise, create, decide, solve problems and hold the vision together. Their personal drive becomes the engine of the company and, for a while, this works extremely well. However, the same identity that helped someone build the business can eventually limit its growth. Scaling a business requires more than working faster, becoming more disciplined or improving efficiency. At some point, the founder must stop being the person who carries everything and become the person who creates the conditions in which other people can carry responsibility too. That transition is not only operational; it is also deeply personal. It requires trust, clearer boundaries and stronger decision making for leaders. It requires the ability to distinguish between what genuinely needs the founder’s attention and what they continue doing because letting go feels uncomfortable. It also requires accepting that strategic leadership is not about withdrawing from responsibility, but about using one’s energy and attention where they create the greatest value. This is where leadership training, executive coaching and entrepreneur coaching can make a meaningful difference, especially when they go beyond techniques and address the identity behind the behaviour. High performance leadership should not mean that an entire organisation depends on one person’s ability to endure pressure, because although that approach may support short-term business performance, it cannot provide a stable foundation for sustainable business growth.

Perhaps exhaustion is not the end of the story

Looking at the dry stem, I began thinking about how quickly we often draw conclusions. We see someone who is tired and assume they have lost their ambition. We experience a period without visible progress and decide that nothing is happening. We no longer feel like the person we used to be and interpret that change as weakness or failure. Yet perhaps the old way of living and leading has simply reached its limit. Exhaustion does not always mean that someone needs to rediscover their former motivation or return to the person they were before they became tired. Sometimes it may be an indication that the next stage cannot be entered with the same identity that carried them through the previous one. The answer may therefore not be to become more disciplined or motivated, but to become someone who no longer needs to prove commitment through exhaustion, who can accept support without experiencing it as weakness and who can remain ambitious without sacrificing health, relationships or a sense of self. A more sustainable leadership mindset allows ambition and wellbeing to exist together rather than treating them as opposing choices. The climbing plant did not abandon its old stem when it reached the tree. That stem remained part of it and continued carrying everything growing above. In the same way, we do not need to reject the version of ourselves that worked hard, survived difficult periods and built what exists today. That version deserves respect, but it does not necessarily need to lead every future chapter in the same way.

Finding the first branch

I also kept thinking about the distance the plant had to cross before it reached support. For some time, it must have been growing without certainty that it would reach the tree. Nothing was holding it up yet, and there was no visible evidence that its direction would lead anywhere. Anyone who has built something meaningful knows this period. There are times when the vision is clear to you but almost invisible to everyone else. You continue working while the results remain uncertain, make decisions with incomplete information and move forward without any guarantee that the effort will succeed. A growth mindset for entrepreneurs matters greatly in these moments, although it should not be confused with repeating the same action indefinitely or insisting that everything must happen in one particular way. Real growth means remaining committed to the vision while staying flexible about the route. The first branch may appear in many forms. It may be the right mentor, a new team member, a strategic partner or a client who sees the potential in an idea before others do. Sometimes it is a conversation at a business networking event, a leadership workshop, a founder event or a CEO conference that opens a door we did not know existed. We often celebrate the independent founder, but very little of lasting value is built entirely alone. Vision driven leadership does not mean having all the answers yourself; it means recognising the people, relationships and opportunities that can help the vision grow. Accepting support does not make a leader less capable and may, in fact, be one of the clearest expressions of leadership excellence.

The forms of growth that are harder to measure

In business, we naturally focus on what can be counted. Revenue, profit, clients, employees, markets and sales are all visible indicators of progress, while internal change is much more difficult to place in a report. There may be no immediate metric for the moment a founder finally delegates something they have controlled for years. There is no simple number for the relief that follows a clearly expressed boundary, and it is difficult to quantify the value of making an important decision from clarity rather than fear. Yet these shifts can shape the future of a company just as strongly as any new strategy. The plant’s old stem was no longer producing new leaves near the ground, yet it continued to support everything growing above it. Human progress can follow a similar pattern, because growth is not always visible where we expect to find it. What appears to be a quiet or unproductive period may actually be a time in which our identity is changing, as we learn what to release, what to preserve and how to lead in a way that is more sustainable. Our previous experiences are not wasted simply because we are entering a new stage. The years of effort, difficult decisions, mistakes and uncertainty become part of the structure that supports what comes next. We do not have to reject the person who brought us here, but we may need to release the belief that they must continue carrying everything alone.

A more sustainable definition of high performance

We need to reconsider what high performance leadership truly means. It cannot simply mean producing more, responding faster and carrying greater pressure. A leader may continue to perform while exhausted, but the cost will eventually appear somewhere, whether in their health, judgement, relationships, creativity or the culture of the organisation. True performance should include the ability to recover, to think clearly and to trust other people enough to let them contribute. It should allow a leader to create meaningful results without losing the capacity to experience the life those results were meant to support. This is why conversations about leadership cannot focus only on strategy and execution. The best leadership training, executive coaching and entrepreneur coaching must also explore the person behind the role, including the identity from which they make decisions, respond to pressure and relate to success. The questions that matter are not only how to grow the business, increase business performance or improve decision making for leaders. We must also ask who we are becoming while we build, which parts of our identity are still supporting us and which ones are keeping us trapped in an old way of working. Sustainable business growth begins when leaders stop treating themselves as an unlimited resource. It grows from a combination of strategic leadership, clear structures, self-awareness and the willingness to evolve before exhaustion makes that evolution unavoidable.

Growing towards the light

The climbing plant did not become something entirely different when it reached the tree. It simply found the support that allowed more of its potential to emerge. Perhaps the next stage of leadership works in a similar way. We do not always need to reinvent ourselves completely, but we may need to recognise what is already alive within us and create better conditions for it to grow. This can mean accepting help, releasing unnecessary control, creating stronger structures and allowing ambition and wellbeing to exist together. These are some of the questions I will explore at the Leadership Activation Summit on 1–2 October at Thermana Laško. The Summit will bring together founders, executives, entrepreneurs and business leaders for conversations about strategic leadership, scaling a business, business performance and decision making for leaders, while also looking beneath these subjects at the identity of the person doing the leading. The next stage of entrepreneurial success may not require us to work harder, but to lead from a different place. What looks tired may still be carrying life, and what appears to be the end of one chapter may simply be the structure that supported us until we reached the first branch. If any part of this reflection feels familiar, the Leadership Activation Summit on 1–2 October at Thermana Laško is where these questions move from the page into the room. It is designed as the first branch for leaders who are still climbing without certainty: a place to meet the mentors, peers and conversations that can carry a vision further than one person alone ever could. Over two days, founders, executives and entrepreneurs will work through strategic leadership, scaling a business, business performance and decision making for leaders, not as abstract topics but as questions about identity, sustainability and what comes after exhaustion. If you recognise yourself in the dry stem still holding everything above it, this is where you find out what grows next.   Claim Your Seat at the Leadership Activation Summit →