Cut the Anchor: Why Your Most Powerful Resolution for 2026 Might Be a STOP List - Edge of the Napkin Series #18
Paper Napkin Wisdom
This time of year, something familiar happens. We turn the page on the calendar and feel the pull to do something different. We reach for a word like resolution and instinctively pair it with action. More discipline. More consistency. More output. More effort. Most resolutions are framed as additions — new habits, new systems, new rules we promise ourselves we’ll finally follow. But what if the most powerful move forward isn’t about what you start doing? What if real...
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People Come for the Work. They Stay for the Team. – Wintress Odom, CEO The Writers for Hire
Paper Napkin Wisdom
Wintress Odom is the Founder and CEO of The Writers For Hire, a company built on clarity, discipline, and consistently high-quality work. From the outside, it’s easy to assume the success came from systems, execution, and technical excellence alone. But on her paper napkin, Wintress wrote something deceptively simple: “People come for the work. They stay for the team.” That sentence didn’t come from a leadership book. It came from lived experience — from building a business, leading...
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Presence Over Presents: The Ultimate Gift You Can Give Yourself This Holiday
Paper Napkin Wisdom
The holidays come wrapped in familiar language. Slow down. Rest. Be present. Unplug. It sounds right. It even sounds desirable. And yet, for many leaders and entrepreneurs, it doesn’t always land. If anything, the holidays can quietly amplify a tension that’s been humming all year. Because while the world appears to be pausing, something inside you may still be moving. Measuring. Reviewing. Assessing. For years, that’s where I lived. When the...
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Turn the Other Cheek, Smile — and Mean It – David Miller
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a particular kind of wisdom that doesn’t shout. It doesn’t posture. It doesn’t try to win the room. It shows up quietly, often after experience has taken its toll, and says: this way works better. That’s the kind of wisdom David Miller brought to this conversation. On his paper napkin, David wrote a deceptively simple line: “Turn the other cheek, smile :) and mean it!” At first glance, it sounds like something we’ve all heard before — maybe even dismissed. Too soft....
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Seeds Grow in the Soil: Why the Most Important Progress Is Invisible (Yet)
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There are seasons where doing the work feels strangely unrewarding. You’re showing up. You’re staying consistent. You’re doing what you said you would do. And yet — nothing obvious is happening. No external validation. No visible breakthrough. No clear sign that you’re “on track.” That’s usually when doubt starts whispering questions we don’t want to answer: Is this actually working? Am I wasting time? Shouldn’t I be further along by now? This Edge of the Napkin episode is about that exact season — the one...
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“Your Revenue Is Hiding in Plain Sight” — Sailynn Doyle on the 80/20 Shift That Changed Everything
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s journey when the hustle stops feeling heroic and starts feeling heavy. For Sailynn Doyle — business systems strategist, former home-care franchise owner, and founder of Passion • Purpose • Posture — that moment came sitting alone in her car at 9 AM on a Tuesday, exhausted and crying before another 12-hour day. From the outside, she was a success story: a million-dollar business by year three. On the inside, she was drowning in the weight of the work. Endless demands. Constant interruptions. Team members who depended on her for every...
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Nothing to Prove. Everything to Be.
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every leader’s life when they look around the “room” they’re in — not the physical room, but the emotional one, the psychological one, the internal one — and ask: “How much of who I am today was shaped by the right voices… and how much by the wrong ones?” For years, Govindh Jayaraman — founder of Paper Napkin Wisdom — sat in rooms filled with people who called themselves friends, collaborators, supporters. And many of them were exactly that. They challenged ideas. They sharpened thinking. They asked questions that helped build the...
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Dan Perry & Michael Serapiglia – “If You Get Lost, Enjoy the View Around You”
Paper Napkin Wisdom
Some stories begin with a business plan. Others begin with a feeling — a deep, lived truth that travel isn’t just about going somewhere, but about finally being somewhere without fear. That’s the story behind Toto Tours. When founder Dan Ware launched the company in 1990, LGBTQ+ travelers faced a world far less welcoming than it is today. Travel was often an act of courage. Safety wasn’t guaranteed. Connection wasn’t a given. And yet Dan believed something radical: that the world belonged to everyone, and that queer people deserved to explore it without shrinking,...
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Be the Man in Someone’s Corner
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There are times in life when wisdom doesn’t show up quietly. It doesn’t whisper. It doesn’t tap you gently on the shoulder. Sometimes it arrives like a jolt — like your heart recognizing something before your brain can process it. That’s how this episode began. If you’ve been following along, you know it’s been a hard season in our home. Stacey’s father — my father-in-law — has been moving through the final stages of his cancer journey. And while there is an entire conversation to be had about the health, the living, and the complexity of that experience… this...
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Noah Ellis — Do The Thing
Paper Napkin Wisdom
There’s a moment in every entrepreneur’s life when the universe stops whispering and starts shouting. A moment where the next level isn’t waiting behind brilliance or luck or timing — it’s sitting directly behind the one thing we don’t want to do. For Noah Ellis, founder of Ofland and a hospitality leader who’s spent his life building concepts, teams, and experiences, that moment became a clarity-inducing mantra so important that he didn’t just write it down… he tattooed on his body: Do the thing. Noah’s wisdom is the kind that doesn’t land with...
info_outlineEvery so often, a line in a movie sneaks past your defenses and lands directly in the center of your chest. Not because it’s poetic. Not because it’s profound. But because it is absolutely, undeniably true. That’s exactly what happened the first time I heard John Candy say three simple words in Planes, Trains and Automobiles:
“I like me.”
If you know the scene, you can probably feel it already. Steve Martin’s character lashes out, attacks Candy’s character—Del Griffith—on every level: his personality, his quirks, his energy, the way he moves through the world. It’s the kind of attack you can only deliver when you’re stressed, frustrated, disconnected, and trying to control everything except your own emotional state.
Candy doesn’t fight back.
He doesn’t crumble.
He doesn’t apologize for existing.
He just breathes, feels the sting, and answers:
“I like me.
My wife likes me.
My customers like me.
Because I’m the real deal.”
And in that moment… the entire movie shifts.
But something inside us shifts too.
Because somewhere deep down, every entrepreneur and every leader knows what it feels like to be judged for who they naturally are. To feel “too much” or “not enough.” To feel pressure to fit into a mold that was never designed for them in the first place.
And yet here is John Candy—the ultimate “unlikely” star—not fitting into anything.
Except himself.
John Candy: The Unlikely Icon Who Never Tried to Fit the Mold
Hollywood had a type.
And John Candy wasn’t it.
He didn’t have the chiselled jawline or the cover-ready look. He wasn’t the leading-man archetype studios chased. They tried to box him into “the big guy,” the sidekick, the comic relief.
But he brought something else—something stronger than image.
He brought identity.
He brought heart, empathy, warmth, and a kind of emotional honesty you can’t fake. And because he brought that, we didn’t just watch him… we loved him.
He wasn’t a star because he fit in.
He was a star because he didn’t.
And in that lesson lies a truth most leaders and entrepreneurs take far too long to learn:
People don’t follow the image of a leader.
They follow the identity behind it.
Entrepreneurs Carry an Invisible Pressure No One Talks About
Let’s be honest.
Most entrepreneurs—no matter how confident they look—carry a quiet question:
“Am I enough?”
Am I skilled enough?
Disciplined enough?
Polished enough?
Ready enough?
Worthy enough?
That pressure shows up in subtle ways:
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overexplaining
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overcommitting
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overdelivering
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grinding harder than necessary
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shrinking in the presence of bigger personalities
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questioning your own instincts
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trying to “look the part” rather than be the part
It becomes a trap.
A cage made of other people’s expectations.
John Candy’s line cuts right through the bars:
“I like me.”
Not because he’s perfect.
Not because he’s winning.
Not because he fits.
But because he recognizes the truth:
Identity > Image.
That’s the napkin for this episode—and a reminder every leader needs to carry.
Why “I Like Me” Is a Leadership Strategy
When you like yourself:
You make clearer decisions.
You negotiate with confidence.
You set boundaries without guilt.
You attract the right customers.
You build teams that trust you.
You communicate without fear.
You step into vision instead of validation.
Self-acceptance isn’t fluff.
It’s leadership infrastructure.
And when you don’t like yourself enough?
You chase approval.
You contort your identity to fit expectations.
You build a business that drains you instead of expressing you.
The game changes—immediately—when you anchor into identity instead of performance.
Your Napkin: Identity > Image
Your napkin sketch says it simply and perfectly:
A hand-drawn mirror.
Three words in the center:
I LIKE ME.
Underneath it:
Identity > Image
Because leadership isn’t about appearing impressive.
It’s about being anchored.
The people who matter—your team, your family, your customers—are drawn to the real you, not the “corrected” version of you.
5 Key Takeaways (with Take Action Steps)
1. Identity is a leadership superpower.
People follow leaders who know who they are.
Take Action:
Write one sentence on a napkin right now:
“I like me because…”
Finish it honestly.
2. Authenticity is more valuable than polish.
John Candy didn’t fit the Hollywood mold—and that’s what made him magnetic.
Take Action:
Identify one area in your business where you’re performing instead of being. Remove the performance layer.
3. Self-acceptance creates clarity.
When you like yourself, decisions become easier and direction becomes obvious.
Take Action:
Before your next major decision, pause and ask:
“What would I choose if I trusted myself completely?”
4. Identity builds trust effortlessly.
Customers feel who you are long before they evaluate what you do.
Take Action:
Record a 60-second voice memo explaining “why I care” about your mission. Share it with your team.
5. Confidence is not a mood—it's an identity choice.
You don’t wait to become confident. You choose to like you, now.
Take Action:
For the next three mornings, look in the mirror and say out loud:
“I like me. I’m the real deal.”
Say it until you feel it.
Final Thought
John Candy didn’t ask permission to be himself.
He didn’t wait to fit in.
He didn’t shrink when someone attacked him.
He simply held the one truth that matters:
“I like me. The people who matter like me. Because I’m the real deal.”
And you?
You’re the real deal too.
Write it on a napkin.
Carry it with you.
Build from that place.
Links
Website: www.papernapkinwisdom.com
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paper-napkin-wisdom/id735345903
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ejOegCltch4RZsqCRKUm3
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@papernapkinwisdom