When your brain's success patterns become outdated frameworks: imagine stepping onto a soccer field in full baseball gear. Time to rewire those neural pathways for the game you're actually playing.
Every CEO has a playbook—those neural pathways carved deep by past victories. But what happens when the strategies that built your company start holding it back? Glenn Gow, who coached CEOs for over two decades, reveals why 60% of venture-backed CEOs get fired within five years, and it's not what you think.
The Success Pattern Trap
"Each of us has what I call success patterns," Gow explains. "These are neural networks in your brain created through experiences in your life. You learn that by doing certain things, you get certain results." The problem? We operate inside these patterns unconsciously until they stop working—and then we feel stuck.
Picture a CEO who built their company through hands-on coding. As the organization scales to 100+ employees, that same CEO is still debugging code instead of building systems and leading people. The neural pathway that created early success becomes the ceiling that prevents future growth.
The blind spot isn't technical—it's self-awareness. Most CEOs don't recognize when it's time to evolve their approach. They double down on what worked before, not realizing the game has changed.
The 97% Problem: Reframing Success
Gow shared a powerful story about a CEO who was "depressed" after hitting 97% of their Q3 revenue target—despite having the best quarter in company history. The issue wasn't performance; it was framing.
"You're framing 97% as a failure when you just had the best quarter your company has ever had," Gow told him. "If you as the CEO are depressed about coming up just short, everyone on your team will be depressed too. Why would they want to work here if nobody cares about what they accomplished?"
The solution wasn't better execution—it was better leadership. The CEO needed to shift from perfectionist to performance recognizer, celebrating wins while still driving toward ambitious goals.
Culture Through Stories, Not Posters
Forget mission statements on walls. Real culture gets built through stories. Gow works with one CEO he calls "a black belt in culture" who tells company-wide stories whenever someone embodies a core value.
"When David worked all weekend to ensure our product launch happened Monday morning despite multiple challenges, that embodied our value of persistence," the CEO might announce. "People won't remember 'persistence' as much as they'll remember the story about David."
Why does this work? New employees will face decision points with no manager to ask. The stories give them a framework for making choices aligned with company values. It's cultural programming through narrative, not rules.
The Three-Thing Rule That Changes Everything
The most transformative advice Gow received from his own 17-year coaching relationship: "Show me your to-do list. Now tell me the three things you're going to get done today."
His reaction? "I looked at her like she had three heads. If I only got three things done, I wouldn't get all this done."
But that was exactly the point. The endless to-do list creates the illusion of productivity while preventing real progress. By forcing prioritization to just three items, you:
Actually complete important work instead of touching everything lightly
See measurable progress toward strategic goals
Free mental bandwidth from decision fatigue
Create space for what matters most (even if it's your kid's baseball game)
"I got those three things done and moved my agenda forward," Gow reflects. "I didn't waste time doing just a little bit on everything else. You don't see progress when you do that."
The Board Reality Check
Here's what most founder-CEOs get wrong about their boards: "As much as the CEO would love to have the board in complete alignment with them, that's never the case."
It's not because anyone is evil. Board members have different objectives—they serve partners, LPs, and their own portfolio returns. Their timeline and risk tolerance may not match yours. Understanding this misalignment lets you manage it strategically instead of being blindsided by it.
"The number one job of the board is to hire and fire the CEO," Gow reminds us. "You need to create as much alignment as you possibly can."
AI + Human: The Future Org Chart
On artificial intelligence's impact on leadership, Gow predicts a radical shift: "In the organizational design of companies of the future, we will have a mix of AI agents and humans. Somewhere on that org chart, we will have agents reporting to humans, and we will also have humans reporting to agents."
But he doesn't see AI replacing the CEO role: "I think we're going to see the human at the top, and they're going to have agents on their leadership team and humans on their leadership team, and they're going to have to manage them both."
The CEOs who thrive will embrace AI in three areas:
Operations: Every employee using AI to boost productivity
Software development: The area seeing the greatest productivity gains today
Product offering: Incorporating AI into what you sell to customers
The Bottom Line
The companies that scale successfully aren't led by CEOs who never change their approach—they're led by CEOs who consciously evolve their leadership as their organizations grow. They recognize when success patterns become limitation patterns. They prioritize ruthlessly. They build culture through stories. And they understand that scaling a company requires scaling themselves first.
"If things are not going well, it's the CEO's fault. And that's actually the good news—because if it's your fault, you can fix it."
Glenn Gow hosts The Scaling CEO podcast, interviewing CEOs and board members about growth strategies. Learn more at glenngow.com.
The AI Reality Check: What Gartner's Latest Report Means for Your Business
Gartner's 2025 GenAI report signals a crucial shift from hype to pragmatic implementation. While 95% of enterprises will use GenAI by 2028, the technology has entered the "Trough of Disillusionment"—creating both opportunities and traps for strategic leaders.
The Vendor Landscape Is Consolidating Fast Microsoft dominates enterprise (39% market share) while OpenAI leads consumer markets (80% of AI tool traffic). But here's what matters more: enterprises now prioritize security and compliance equally with performance. Smart buyers are adopting multi-model strategies (37% use five+ models) to avoid vendor lock-in while managing increased complexity.
Marketing Measurement Is Having Its Moment Privacy regulations killed traditional attribution, driving 49% of marketers back to Marketing Mix Modeling—but it's not your grandfather's MMM. AI-powered platforms now deliver real-time insights in weeks instead of years, with organizations reporting 6.5% sales increases purely from better budget allocation.
CFOs Are Getting Nervous—And That's Creating Opportunities Trade policy concerns are driving 42% of CFOs toward high-frequency scenario planning instead of quarterly cycles. AI adoption in financial planning is surging (45% to 85% by 2025), creating demand for forecasting tools and scenario modeling platforms.
The Contrarian Reality Check Goldman Sachs questions returns on $1 trillion in AI spending, while BCG finds only 11% of AI investors have released significant value. The lesson: focus on specific problems with measurable ROI, not transformation theater.
Bottom Line: The AI gold rush is over. Winners will be determined by strategic implementation, accurate measurement, and adaptation speed—not who adopts fastest. Time to get pragmatic about AI strategy.
The Patent Minefield Every Founder Must Navigate
Episode 32: Don’t Launch Your Product Until You Watch This - Austin Bonderer
Before you pitch that revolutionary idea to investors or manufacturers, you need to understand the intellectual property battlefield you're entering. Austin Bonderer, a patent attorney with nearly 700 patents to his name and an undefeated record on patent appeals, reveals the harsh realities that can make or break startup dreams.
The Three Critical Mistakes That Kill Inventions
Disclosure kills patents. Bonderer's first rule is simple but brutal: tell nobody about your idea without proper protection. That casual conversation with a potential partner? That demo to a manufacturer? Each disclosure without a bulletproof NDA could destroy your patent rights forever.
Your NDA is probably worthless. Most founders don't realize that NDAs require consideration—something of value exchanged—to be legally binding. A one-sided promise isn't enforceable, and even valid NDAs won't protect you from the biggest players who simply refuse to sign them.
Methods beat products every time. While you can't patent aspirin, you can patent using aspirin to treat heart attacks. Bonderer explains why method patents often provide stronger protection than product patents, especially when dealing with existing technologies used in new ways.
The Patent Troll Reality Check
The BlackBerry story is every founder's nightmare: a distressed patent portfolio buyer found one small patent that BlackBerry was infringing, leading to a $750 million settlement that nearly destroyed the company. These "patent trolls" buy intellectual property specifically to create legal landmines for successful companies.
The defense? File your patent application before you start pitching. It's your only protection when VCs and major corporations won't sign NDAs due to liability concerns.
The Global Patent Trap
Here's what most founders miss: patents are local. Your US patent protects nothing in China, Europe, or anywhere else. Bonderer's advice: if your product will be manufactured overseas, patent it in those manufacturing centers first. Control the production, control the market.
You have exactly one year from your first US filing to decide where else to file internationally—miss that window and you lose global protection forever.
The Supreme Court's Software Patent Massacre
The Alice decision effectively killed most software patents in the US. The court ruled you can't patent abstract ideas, even when attached to computers. This created a massive shift in how tech companies protect their innovations, moving focus from software patents to trade secrets and first-mover advantages.
Bottom Line for Founders
Patents aren't just legal documents—they're business weapons. Large corporations use them as shields in "mutually assured destruction" scenarios, while smaller companies wield them as both sword and shield. The key insight: if you've solved a problem, you might have something patentable. But the window to protect it is narrow, the costs are significant, and the stakes couldn't be higher.
"Half the stuff in your house isn't covered by patents. You might as well try to make money off your idea. But get that patent application filed first."
Listen to the full episode for Bonderer's rapid-fire advice on productivity hacks, the weirdest patent he's worked on, and his final verdict on whether patents help or hurt innovation.
Ready to Scale Beyond Your Current Success Patterns?
Glenn Gow coaches CEOs who hit the wall when their tried-and-true strategies stop working, while Austin Bonderer protects founders from losing everything to patent landmines they never saw coming. Both understand a crucial truth: what got you here won't get you there. Whether it's outdated neural pathways limiting your leadership or intellectual property blind spots threatening your innovation, breakthrough success requires evolving beyond your current frameworks.
The latest Gartner research confirms we're in the "Trough of Disillusionment" for AI—the honeymoon period is over, and pragmatic implementation begins now. Smart leaders aren't just adopting technology; they're transforming how they think, plan, and execute in an AI-driven world.
Discover your perfect coaching match at CoachFinder.ai
Get matched with top-tier coaches who specialize in:
CEO scaling and leadership evolution that breaks through success pattern limitations
AI strategy and implementation that moves beyond hype into measurable business impact
Intellectual property strategy and innovation protection for founders and scale-ups
Financial scenario planning and adaptive forecasting in uncertain markets
Marketing measurement transformation for the privacy-first, post-attribution era
Board dynamics and investor relations that align stakeholders around growth objectives
Just like Glenn's CEO learned to reframe 97% as success rather than failure, and Austin's clients discovered that methods often trump products in patent protection, find the coach who can help you recognize when it's time to evolve your approach—before the market forces the change for you.