I’ve been reading The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan — a vivid account of the slow unravelling of the Roman Republic before anyone realized how fragile it had become.
While I was reading, I remembered something from earlier this year. My colleague and friend Ben and I attended a discussion on Stoicism, and the speaker mentioned Mike Duncan and a quote he once said, it had always stuck with me and I wanted to share and elaborate on that today:
"The winds may howl but I will not be swept away."
It’s an old idea dressed in modern words — the idea that change and chaos are inevitable, but our response is not.
I’ve worked inside companies during seasons of great upheaval. New strategies, reorgs, leadership changes. Sometimes it felt like standing in a gale, watching colleagues get blown sideways — worry, distraction, hesitation.
And yet, every time, there was a choice: to plant my feet or to be swept away.
Now, mentoring others, I see it from another vantage point. Bright, capable people get consumed by the noise of change. They think the storm is about them, about their worth, about their future.
It’s not.
It’s just weather.
The winds may howl. But you don’t have to move with them.
You can decide.
Plant your feet. Focus on the work. Be the calm in the storm.
That is leadership.
Sea's The Day 