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Mark Schaefer is coming! He will be our main featured speaker next year, on Feb. 11, 2026, at Speakerscon at Space at One Ayala, Makati. I have read all of his books, and he is one of the best minds in marketing.
There’s a story Mark Schaefer shared that deeply resonated with me. I believe it’s worth sharing because it touches on a struggle we often overlook in our determined pursuit of success, significance and a better life for those we care about.
Mark was interviewed about work–life balance and asked to reflect on a season in his early career when he was working full-time, studying for his MBA and raising two young children. He spent nearly four years with zero “me time.”
The interviewer asked him a question many of us have asked ourselves:
“If you could go back and give your younger, hard-driving self just one piece of advice, what would it be?”
The expected answer, of course, was something like: “Slow down. Rest more. Spend more time with family.” After all, that’s the popular narrative these days.
But Mark’s answer surprised his interviewer:
“I would tell my younger self, ‘Good job.’”
At first, that response sounds almost politically incorrect. But when I reflected on it, I understood why he said it — and I want to unpack it with you, because there is wisdom here we often ignore.
Mark referenced a concept from Jim Collins’ book ‘Good to Great: The flywheel effect.’
In it, Collins describes a career flywheel like this:
“Picture an egg just sitting there. No one pays it much attention until, one day, the egg cracks open and out jumps a chicken! All the major magazines and newspapers jump on the event, writing feature stories: ‘The Transformation of Egg to Chicken!’ ‘The Remarkable Revolution of the Egg!’ ‘Stunning Turnaround at Egg!’ as if the egg had undergone some overnight metamorphosis, radically altering itself into a chicken.
But what does it look like from the chicken’s point of view? It’s a completely different story.
While the world ignored this dormant-looking egg, the chicken was evolving, growing, developing, incubating. From the chicken’s point of view, cracking the egg is simply one more step in a long chain of steps leading up to that moment — a big step, to be sure, but hardly the radical, single-step transformation it looks like to those watching from outside.”[1]
“It’s a silly analogy, granted. But I’m using it to highlight a very important finding from our research. We kept thinking that we’d find “the one big thing,” the miracle moment that defined breakthrough. We even pushed for it in our interviews. But the good-to-great executives simply could not pinpoint a single key event or moment in time that exemplified the transition.”
Most careers, businesses and personal breakthroughs are not overnight miracles. They are a slow, steady, compounding push of effort, discipline, courage and consistency. Not one defining act, but many invisible ones.
Mark calls this career momentum, and he expands on it in his book ‘Cumulative Advantage.’
Mark pushed his flywheel early. He didn’t come from wealth, so he worked to earn what he wanted.
In college, he built relationships with corporate leaders through a student organization, which led to internships. Those internships led to better roles. The better roles led to bigger doors.
Eventually, those stepping stones led him to a Fortune 100 job — and the foundation of the career he has today.
Were those years exhausting? Yes.
Did he sacrifice? Absolutely.
Would he undo it? His answer was no.
Like Mark, many of us have gone through seasons of grinding — late nights, weekends, sleepless sacrifices — because our families needed a better future, or because our calling demanded growth faster than our comfort allowed.
Looking back, some people feel guilty about those years. But perhaps we don’t always need to.
There are flywheel seasons in life.
Those are the years when we build capacity, competence, credibility and character. The years that compound into opportunities, influence and freedom later on.
The world loves instant results today — but real success still follows ancient laws: Plant. Water. Wait. Grow. Harvest.
You may be working, studying, leading, parenting, building — all at once. And sometimes you wonder: Is it worth it? Am I missing out? Will the grind ever pay off?
Let me encourage you.
If you’re doing it with integrity, for the right reasons and with the right priorities still in place, keep going.
You are building something bigger than what is visible today.
And so you push. Grow. Learn. Build.
One day, when your shell cracks and the world calls it “sudden,” you will smile and say:
“It may look sudden to you. But this was years in the making.”
And maybe — just like Mark — you will be able to look back at your younger self and simply say:
“Good job.”
Catch Kongversations with Francis on YouTube and all major podcast platforms—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and more. Plus, listen to Inspiring Excellence wherever you stream.
