Get Yourself a Squad
The last couple of weeks reminded me of something important: life, and business, is way easier with a squad.
You know those weeks where everything seems to arrive at once? An issue appears five minutes before you’re supposed to leave the house. A decision you’ve been avoiding suddenly needs to be made. Your confidence takes a little hit and you start wondering if you’re secretly terrible at everything.
That’s when the squad comes in.
When we’re younger, we’re obsessed with independence. We can’t wait to prove we can do everything ourselves. But the older I get, the more convinced I am that independence is wildly overrated. What actually works is interdependence.
Stephen Covey said it best in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
“Life is, by nature, highly interdependent. To try to achieve maximum effectiveness through independence is like trying to play tennis with a golf club.”
Which, if you’ve ever tried to solve every problem yourself, feels about right.
History is full of great squads. Andy Warhol had his Factory crew. The Brat Pack basically ruled the 80s together. Taylor Swift has an entire friendship Avengers team. And yes, Amy Schumer famously rolls with a posse that seems to laugh their way through life.
Turns out collaboration and friendship are a pretty good productivity hack.
I’ve seen the same thing in business. Over the years I’ve been lucky to collect a group of people I trust deeply — the ones who give the pep talks when confidence is low, the ones who catch the embarrassing mistakes before they go out into the world, and the ones who aren’t afraid to tell me when I’m overthinking something (which, let’s be honest, happens a lot).
When I’ve got that crew around me, something interesting happens: I just want to create. I don’t even care what we’re building. There’s energy in the room, ideas start bouncing around, and suddenly things that felt heavy become exciting again.
And the best part is, it’s not one-way. One week someone is helping me out of a jam. The next week I get to return the favor.
So here’s a question I’ve been thinking about lately:
Who’s in your squad?
If you’ve got one, tell them you appreciate them. And if you don’t yet, maybe it’s time to start collecting your people — the ones who challenge you, support you, and want to see you win.
Because doing life solo might look impressive for a while…
…but having a great squad is a lot more fun.
Stephen
