Halfway through year one. I’m grateful for the work, the people, and the chance to keep competing.

When I launched Always Future Group, I told myself I was building a firm. What I didn't fully appreciate is that I was also signing up for the most honest scoreboard of my career. There's no place to hide in year one. No brand equity to coast on, no legacy accounts, no "that's how we've always done it." Every engagement is earned. Every month either moves the work forward or it doesn't.

We just crossed the halfway mark of our first year in business, andnd here's the headline: I am more grateful than I am tired. That's not nothing.

The Work

The first six months have taken us across more industries and problem types than I would have dared put in the business plan — strategy work, research work, positioning work, and the launch of our own Drive Diagnostic. Some of it was planned. Plenty of it wasn't. I guess that's the nature of a young firm. You build the plan, and then the market tells you what it actually needs from you.

What I keep coming back to is this: the work found us because people trusted us. Not a brand. Not a case study library. Us. Every SOW signed in the first year of a business is an act of faith by the client, and I don't take that lightly. To the organizations who handed us complex problems and real budgets before we had a track record as a firm — thank you. You made this year possible.

The Camaraderie

Here's what nobody tells you about going out on your own: you don't actually go out on your own.

Behind every deliverable this year have been peers, partners, moderators, designers, developers, and advisors who showed up.Often for far less than their time was worth, and occasionally just because they believed in what we were building. Former colleagues who made introductions. Fellow founders who answered the "how did you handle this?" call at odd hours. Collaborators who treated our clients like their own.

I spent decades inside agencies, and I thought I understood the professional community. I didn't, not really. When the safety net of a big organization goes away, you find out fast who your people are. Mine turned out to be more numerous and more generous than I had any right to expect. If you're one of them and you're reading this: thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The Personal Scoreboard

If you read Drive Is Dynamic, (or take the The Drive Diagnostic) you know I believe the primary competition is with your own previous best. So it's only fair that I show you my own scoreboard at the half. (Better yet, take the

Every year I track a handful of personal metrics — books read, steps taken, workouts completed, sleep logged — because building a business is not the time to stop building yourself. If anything, it's the season when personal goals matter most. Here's where the first half of 2026 stands against the first half of 2025:

Books: 18, up from 16. June was actually my best reading month on record with six books read. Starting a company apparently didn't kill my reading life; it sharpened it. When problems get harder, the need for better thinking increases

Workouts: 110, up from 108. Barely ahead, and honestly, this is the number I watch most closely. My back half of last year was stronger than my front half, which means the real test is still coming. Good. A target you've already secured isn't a target.

Steps: essentially dead even.Within half a percent of last year's pace. A tie at the half is just a second half worth playing.

Sleep: down about 15 minutes a night. No spin on this one. Client needs have shifted, calls run long, and the work often follows me into the evening. The only part of the day I fully control is the front of it, so the mornings have to count: up earlier, reading done, workout done, before we see what the day brings. Add in more 7 AM meetings this year than I've had in years past, and the math shows up in the sleep column. I'll be keeping a careful eye on this one.

That's why I track in the first place, not for the celebration, but for the clear picture. Three metrics trending up or holding steady, one telling me the truth about what this season costs. Without the scoreboard, I'd just have a vague feeling that things were mostly fine. With it, I know exactly where I’m at.

The Gratitude

Six months in, here's what I know.

I'm grateful for the work, because meaningful problems are a privilege, not a burden, and we've been handed some genuinely meaningful projects. I'm grateful for the people — clients who trusted a first-year firm, peers who lent their credibility to ours, and a community that reminded me no one builds anything worth building alone. I'm grateful for the chance to keep competing with my own previous best — in the business, in the gym, in the books, and yes, in getting to bed on time.

Halfway there. The second half starts now.

Action Focused. Anchor Firm.