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Invisible Story #1

Read time: 3½ minutes

Welcome to David Beats Goliath—for founders who refuse to live small stories.

Dear Founders,

Over the next 12 weeks, I want to share something I’ve been thinking about (and pressure-testing) for a very long time:

Over the coming weeks, I want to surface the invisible stories I see running founders and business leaders every day.

I’ll start with the negative stories—the ones that quietly sabotage momentum.

If it’s not helpful, you can tell me.
(I won’t stop. But I do listen.)

Let’s start with the first.

Invisible Stories, Part I: “I’m Behind.”

There’s an invisible story that quietly drives a lot of ambitious people.

It doesn’t announce itself.
It doesn’t sound dramatic.
But it shapes decisions more than most people realize.

“I’m behind.”

Invisible story:

Fueled by LinkedIn highlight reels.
Curated wins.
Media that celebrates outcomes without timelines.

And once this story lodges itself in your head, it does damage.

What this story does to you

“I’m behind” doesn’t just make you feel bad.

(Important aside: feeling bad doesn’t automatically mean something is wrong.)

This story is harmful because of what it causes:

• Ambition turns into anxiety
• Decisions become reactive instead of deliberate
• You rush into paths you didn’t choose—just to “catch up”

The real cost?

You optimize for speed, not direction.

A moment I still remember clearly

When I was 31, I was running a test prep company.

Things were objectively fine.

But I remember telling the CEO of a friendly competitor—someone just a year or two older than me:

Why did I believe that?

Because friends my age were already “set.”
Because people I knew had made their first millions.
And because Mark Zuckerberg, two years younger than me, was suddenly everywhere—headlines, billions, mythology.

I felt late in every imaginable way.

Or at least, that was the story I was telling myself.

Media makes this story feel true

Modern media excels at one thing:

No wandering years.
No resets.
No quiet execution.

When you compare your middle to someone else’s ending, the spiral is almost inevitable:

That last thought is the poison.

The missing truth

Here’s the reframe most people never fully internalize:

If I told you (clearly, honestly) that building something meaningful takes at least 7 years, the correct conclusion would not be:

It should be:

The “I’m behind” story twists time into a weapon.
It tells you that because you didn’t start earlier, starting now is pointless.

That’s the lie.

Why “I’m behind” is a bad story

Not because it hurts.

It’s bad because it’s false.

The most important thing in business is execution.

But this story sneaks in a damaging assumption:

Once you believe that, you hesitate.
Or you sprint blindly.
Both are forms of self-sabotage.

Let’s be honest: some things are too late

This is not an “It’s never too late” sermon.

Some things genuinely are.

I’m too late to choose a career as an Olympic athlete.
Pretending otherwise would be delusional.

Wisdom means letting go of paths that are true mismatches.

But here’s the distinction most people miss:

Building businesses.
Building wealth.
Building meaningful work.

These are not age-locked games.

The examples people misunderstand

A few reminders—with real ages, not mythology:

• ​Colonel Sanders​
  Franchised KFC at 65, after refining the pressure-cooker method and being rejected countless times.
• ​Ray Kroc​
  Was 52 when he opened his first McDonald's franchise
• ​Sam Walton​
  Opened the first Walmart at 44—hardly “early” by today’s standards.

In today’s dollars?

Millions that became billions.

Not prodigies.
Not early winners.
Just people who stayed in the game long enough to execute well.

The quiet but powerful reframe

You’re not behind.

You’re simply standing at the point where time starts to work for you—if you move.

Most people rush early…
…and quit when execution gets slow, boring, or lonely.

If you’re still willing to execute patiently and deliberately, you’re not late.

You’re dangerous.

Sit with this question

If you truly believed that anything worthwhile takes 7-10 years, what would you start executing on today—without panic?

Next week, I’ll unpack the second invisible story.
It’s just as common, and just as costly.

Yours truly,
David

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