The Best Way to Fail As a Leader

Readiness

Don't take a half-baked cake out of the oven or it will fall. If you get into position before you're ready, you will fall too. Timing matters.

And I know that's not what you want to hear. You want to hear that if you have the gift, the calling, the vision, that's enough. You want to hear that passion will carry you. That your natural talent will be sufficient. It won't.

Because leadership isn't just about having wings. It's about having wings strong enough to actually fly.

The Cake That Looks Ready

Here's what most people don't understand about leadership readiness: it's not always obvious from the outside. You can look at a cake in the oven and think it's done. The top is golden. The edges have pulled away from the pan. It looks perfect. But stick a knife in the center and it comes out covered in wet batter. The same thing happens with leaders.

From the outside, you might look ready. You have the charisma. You have the vision. You have people who believe in you. You might even have the opportunity sitting right in front of you. But if you haven't been in the oven long enough, if you haven't gone through the full baking process, you'll collapse under the weight of what you're trying to carry. Just like that cake with the wet batter in the center, you'll fall the moment pressure is applied. And by the time you realize you weren't fully baked, the damage is already done.

The Evidence vs. The Outcome

So how do you know if you're actually ready or if fear is lying to you and calling itself wisdom?

Here's the difference:

Fear focuses on outcomes. Readiness focuses on evidence. Fear asks, "What if I fail? What if I'm not good enough? What if people see I'm a fraud?" Readiness asks, "What have I successfully handled? What challenges have I already overcome? What evidence do I have that my wings can support this flight?"

This requires brutal honesty with yourself, which isn't always fun. And here's the truth: most of us can't see ourselves objectively. We either overestimate our readiness because we really want to fly, or we underestimate it because we're terrified to try.

That's why having a coach, a mentor, someone who can look at you objectively and tell you the truth, matters so much. They can see what you can't. They can tell you when you're making excuses and when you're genuinely not ready yet.

But even without a coach, you can ask yourself: What have I actually handled well? Not what do I think I could handle. What have I proven I can handle?

If the answer is thin, your wings probably are too.

Life Will Test You

Here's what's hard for people to reognize and accept: life tests your readiness whether you ask for it or not.

Think about taking a test in school. It's not there to be easy. It's there to reveal what you know and what you don't. Life operates the same way. You'll face challenges that expose where you're strong and where you're still developing. A failed business. A relationship that imploded. A leadership opportunity that crushed you. Conflict you couldn't navigate. Pressure that made you quit.

These aren't signs you're not called to lead. They're signs your wings aren't developed enough yet. And that's okay. That's not failure. That's information.

But here's where people go wrong: they either ignore the test results and push forward anyway, or they take the test results as proof they should never try again. Both are wrong. The test isn't there to stop you. It's there to show you where growth has happened and what still needs work.

The Cocoon Phase You're Trying to Skip

Let me tell you about someone I know who had every natural gift for leading a team. Charismatic. Visionary. People loved being around them. They got promoted into management at a tech startup, and within six months, the entire team had either quit or requested transfers.

What happened?

They had the gift. They had the calling. They had the opportunity. But they didn't have the development. They'd never learned how to handle conflict. They'd never been tested under real pressure. They'd never had to make decisions that would disappoint people they cared about. They'd never sat in the tension of being responsible for someone else's livelihood.

All of those things require developed wings. And you don't develop them by getting the title. You develop them in the cocoon, in that uncomfortable, isolated, challenging phase where your character is being built.

In the cocoon phase, things get harder, not easier. You face bigger challenges, sometimes multiple at once. People fall away. Sometimes you have to walk away from people. This isolation isn't punishment. It's strategic. As you change, what you tolerate changes. Your focus shifts. Your desires evolve. You start seeing things differently. This is your wings developing. This is your strength building.

But most people try to skip this phase. They see the cocoon as a holding pattern, as wasted time. They want to break out before the transformation is complete. And when they do, they fall.

The Cost of Weak Wings

You can have the gift of brain surgery and still kill someone on the operating table if you skip medical school.

Natural talent without development is dangerous. Not just to you, but to everyone who depends on you.

Weak wings can only fly so far. You might get off the ground. You might even soar for a moment. But when the real test comes, when the wind picks up, when the weight gets heavy, weak wings will fail you. And the higher you've climbed with undeveloped wings, the harder you'll fall.

That's not meant to scare you. It's meant to wake you up. Stop trying to skip steps. Stop looking for shortcuts. Stop mistaking impatience for readiness.

The cocoon phase exists for a reason. The testing exists for a reason. The challenges that feel like they're breaking you are actually building you. Your job isn't to rush the development process. Your job is to be present in it. To learn what needs to be learned. To develop what needs to be developed. To let your wings fully form before you try to fly.

What Readiness Actually Looks Like

Here's what happens when you don't skip the development:

• You step into leadership and you're not panicking.
• You face conflict and you know how to navigate it because you've been through it before.
• Pressure comes and you don't crumble because you've built the strength to hold it.
• People challenge your decisions and you don't fall apart because you know who you are and why you're there.
• Things go wrong and you don't quit because you've already failed before and learned it's not the end.
• You make the hard call that disappoints someone, and it doesn't destroy you because you've learned that leadership means choosing the right thing over the comfortable thing.
• You carry the weight because your wings are strong enough to hold it.

That's what developed leadership looks like. That's what happens when you let the process complete before you try to fly.

And here's the beautiful part: when you're actually ready, when your wings are fully developed, you don't just survive in leadership. You soar. You don't just make it through. You thrive.

The challenges that would have crushed you before become opportunities to demonstrate what you've built. The pressure that would have broken you becomes the force that lifts you higher.

Leadership success isn't about being the most talented. It's about being the most developed. It's about having wings that can actually carry the weight of where you're trying to go.

Your Move

So here's what I need you to hear: if you know you're called to lead, that's real. Don't doubt that. But being called doesn't mean you're ready right now.

Ask yourself the hard questions:

• What have I successfully handled that proves I can carry this?
• Where have life's tests shown me I still need development?
• Am I in a cocoon phase right now that I'm trying to rush through?
• Am I focused on the outcome I want or the evidence of what I can handle?

Be honest. Be humble enough to recognize when your wings aren't fully developed yet. That's not failure. That's wisdom. And if you're in the cocoon right now, if you're in that isolated, challenging, uncomfortable phase, stop fighting it. Stop trying to break out before it's time.

Let the process complete. Let your wings develop. Let the transformation happen.

Because when you finally emerge, when your wings are strong and your character is solid and your capacity is built, you won't just fly.

You'll soar in ways that would have been impossible if you'd rushed the process. The best leaders aren't the ones who got there fastest. They're the ones who stayed in the cocoon long enough to develop wings strong enough to carry them through anything.

Don't skip your development trying to rush your destiny. Your time is coming. But it comes when you're ready, not just when you're eager.

Stay in the oven until you're fully baked. Let the knife come out clean. Build wings that can actually fly.

Because when readiness meets opportunity, you won't just lead. You'll lead well. And you'll be strong enough to sustain it.

The cocoon isn't your prison. It's your preparation. Now, imagine how beautifully you will fly because you allowed your wings to develop...

Fatima Bey The MindShifter

International Speaker, Coach & Creator of the MindShift Universe