I didn’t go to Barcelona expecting a fight.
But within hours, it found me.
A man shoved a flyer at me that I didn’t want. I brushed him off, dropping my guard for just a second.
The next thing I knew, he was dancing around me, bumping my hip, and my wallet slid out of my pocket.
Without thinking, I spun and snatched it back from his hand.
Instinct kicked in faster than thought.
Standing there in the middle of the Gothic Quarter, heart pounding, wallet reclaimed, I felt two things at once:
I was pissed at my complacency and thrilled that my instincts were still alive.
That feeling of anger at my laziness and pride in resilience stayed with me all weekend.
Because what happened next wasn’t about street crime.
It was about rediscovering something I didn’t even realize I was losing:
The ability and the need to fight for what matters.
Lie #1: Leaders should stay “high level.”
Truth: If you can’t get your hands dirty, you’re not leading. You’re commenting.
At the Semrush AI Hackathon, I had one day. One idea. One shot to build it myself.
No decks. No strategy meetings. No innovation theater.
Just me, a blank screen, and the stubborn refusal to quit when frameworks broke, tools crashed, and the clock kept ticking.
Every error message was a personal challenge. Every successful build was a victory earned through sweat and swearing.
In a world obsessed with talking about the future, I remembered:
You only touch it if you build it with your own hands.
The most dangerous thing about executive distance is the illusion of perspective.
When we lose touch with building, everything looks manageable until reality hits.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” - Mike Tyson
Lie #2: Building is for engineers.
Truth: Building is survival.
Docker. Cursor. GenAI. Or whatever you like.
These aren’t just engineering tools. They’re survival tools.
I made rookie mistakes.
Got greedy changing too much at once.
Lost an hour untangling my mess.
Forgot to back up my work. (Fixed that fast.)
But I kept building.
The future belongs to those who can both envision and execute.
I’ve seen it: teams led by pure strategists drift; teams led by builder-leaders evolve.
Lie #3: Innovation comes from agreement.
Truth: Real growth starts in disagreement.
Barcelona. Warsaw. Prague.
The room wasn’t just technically brilliant. It was mentally diverse.
Different assumptions. Different frameworks.
Disagreements that made my thinking sharper.
It wasn’t about right or wrong — it was about complementary friction.
Fresh minds surface fresh possibilities.
If you want new ideas, stop looking for people who agree with you.
What I Won (and What Mattered)
Yes, I won the hackathon (still can’t believe it!)
Yes, I earned a trip to an AI conference.
Yes, I built something real and working in a single day.
But the true victory?
Remembering who I am:
Not just someone who directs, but someone who builds.
The Challenge
If you’re an executive who’s forgotten what it feels like to create this is a warning. But it’s not a judgment.
The future is being built by those who aren’t afraid to break things, crash into walls, and get their hands dirty.
Leadership isn’t only about steering the ship anymore. Not with the tools we have at our fingertips.
It’s about diving in (hasn’t it always been?)
I almost let complacency steal something from me.
Fortunately, my instincts and my hands still knew how to act.
Barcelona woke me up.
The next decade won’t be won with strategy decks.
It’ll be won by the people still willing to bleed a little for what they build.
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