Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and Goala GV.
Speaker 1: This is the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode five forty seven. Today's episode centers on a
Speaker 2: single line that has saved more careers than any training
Speaker 2: course ever. Could you cannot go back and change the beginning,
Speaker 2: but you can start where you are and change the ending.
Speaker 2: Leaders hear this and think it's a motivational poster. It's not.
Speaker 2: It's the blueprint for the moment in your life when
Speaker 2: the story turns and you finally take the wheel. I
Speaker 2: want to take you into a story. Picture a leader
Speaker 2: who has been in the same job for years. They
Speaker 2: know the place so well they can walk it blindfolded.
Speaker 2: They also know their own mistakes, the times they snapped
Speaker 2: at someone, the times they ran a meeting badly, the
Speaker 2: hires they regret, the ideas they abandoned too early, the
Speaker 2: opportunities they let sit on a shelf. This leader carries
Speaker 2: all of it like a weight strapped to their back.
Speaker 2: The problem is they think the only way to move
Speaker 2: forward is to erase that history. And one day, this
Speaker 2: leader goes through a routine morning coffee, checking their emails,
Speaker 2: checking the schedule. Then something happens. Someone they lead walks
Speaker 2: in and says a simple sentence, you seem tired lately,
Speaker 2: And that lands harder than expected, because it's true. The
Speaker 2: leader is not tired from the hours. They're tired from
Speaker 2: dragging the first chapter of their story with them everywhere.
Speaker 2: That moment forces a question many leaders avoid. If the
Speaker 2: next chapter of your story started today, would you let
Speaker 2: it begin the same way yesterday ended. Leaders often believe
Speaker 2: redemption or growth needs a clean slate. It doesn't. It
Speaker 2: just needs a decision, one moment where you stop replaying
Speaker 2: the past and start rewriting the future. You don't need
Speaker 2: to rebuild the first steps. You need to commit to
Speaker 2: the next steps, because there will never be a perfect
Speaker 2: day to begin again. No leader wakes up to fireworks
Speaker 2: in a marching band announcing a new start. What actually
Speaker 2: happens is quiet. It happens in a hallway, a patrol
Speaker 2: car office at the station, in a meeting room. You
Speaker 2: draw a line in your mind and say, this part
Speaker 2: of my story is going to read differently, And when
Speaker 2: leaders do this, the shift is immediate. They speak differently,
Speaker 2: they coach differently. They review their team's work with clarity
Speaker 2: instead of with frustration. They correct mistakes without taking someone's
Speaker 2: confidence with it. They stop defending their old decisions and
Speaker 2: start making new ones. It's not dramatic, it's intentional. And
Speaker 2: when you look back, you will know exactly when the
Speaker 2: story changed. You will be able to point to the page.
Speaker 2: If you're listening right now and thinking about the things
Speaker 2: you would redo if you could, here's your action step.
Speaker 2: You are not allowed to redo anything that is not leadership. Instead,
Speaker 2: your new job is to redesign the ending, and here's
Speaker 2: how to do it. Starting today, Pick one thing that
Speaker 2: has been weighing on you, one pattern that you want
Speaker 2: to break, one mistake you want to stop repeating. Name it,
Speaker 2: bring it out into the light, then decide that it
Speaker 2: will not survive into the next chapter. Leaders do not
Speaker 2: wait until Monday. They start at the next interaction, the
Speaker 2: next meeting, the next conversation, and it creates a ripple.
Speaker 2: Your team starts to notice that you handle things differently.
Speaker 2: You give clearer direction, you listen longer, you communicate with purpose,
Speaker 2: You treat people like future partners, and not problems to solve.
Speaker 2: None of this erases the past, but it rewrites the
Speaker 2: future of your relationship with them. That is how endings change,
Speaker 2: positional gravity shifts. People start leaning in again. When you
Speaker 2: change the ending of your story, you also change the
Speaker 2: stories of the people you lead. That is the ripple
Speaker 2: effect of your leadership. Your shift becomes their shift. The
Speaker 2: room starts to feel different, work becomes steadier. Trust comes
Speaker 2: back not because you restarted the story, but because you
Speaker 2: changed your part of it. This line that inspired today's
Speaker 2: episode is not about forgiveness. It is about control. You
Speaker 2: control what the next page looks like. You control whether
Speaker 2: the ending is strong or forgettable. You control how people
Speaker 2: talk about your leadership when they tell your story years
Speaker 2: from now. You cannot go back and change the beginning,
Speaker 2: but you can start where you are and change the ending.
Speaker 2: That is the moment you become the author again and
Speaker 2: not a character dragged along by decisions that you made
Speaker 2: long ago. And if you need a final push here
Speaker 2: it is every great comeback, every transformation, every final chapter
Speaker 2: worth reading, begins in the exact same place, a leader
Speaker 2: standing where you are right now, who made a decision
Speaker 2: that the next part of their story would look nothing
Speaker 2: like the page before it. If you've been waiting for
Speaker 2: permission to begin again, this is it. Your leadership story
Speaker 2: is far from finished. Pick up the pen and start
Speaker 2: shaping and ending that people will remember and talk about
Speaker 2: for decades to come. And if you want more leadership content,
Speaker 2: head over to my YouTube channel. The link is in
Speaker 2: the description of the show and on my website Paulfalavalito
Speaker 2: dot com. I'm constantly uploading leadership short videos. Select full
Speaker 2: length videos of this podcast and future video interviews will
Speaker 2: be there as well, along with some behind the scenes content.
Speaker 2: And while you're there, please make sure you like and
Speaker 2: subscribe to my channel. This has been the seven minute
Speaker 2: Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more fell of Alito podcasts, visit Paulfalovalito dot com.