This Is The Valley
You'll laugh because it's funny; you'll cry because it's true
Good morning! What’s on tap today:
Welcome to The Valley!
The debut of a new section: reader spotlight.
A killer deal on bulk-orders of The Fog of Work.
Bottom line up front: The Valley isn’t something happening to you, it’s happening around you. It’s not a problem to be solved. It’s an opportunity to become a better leader as you make your way through it.
This 👆🏻 is why being a leader in the middle of an organization is so challenging.
This is The Valley.
If you know, you know.
Pressure from the left.
Pressure from the right.
Constantly feeling buried under more than you can handle.
Hazing or a Pep Talk?
When someone first told me about The Valley, I had just been promoted into my first leadership position with one of the big accounting firms in Atlanta.
“Adam, congrats on your promotion. Your life just got a lot more difficult.”
Um, excuse me?
I thought my colleague was hazing me. Trying to scare me the way fraternity brothers torment pledges.
After about six weeks of leading, I realized he wasn’t hazing me at all. He was giving me a pep talk.
Not a Just a Quirk
For years, I thought The Valley was a quirk of the accounting industry. Now I know better. The Valley exists in every industry and every company, regardless of size. It’s unavoidable.
And that’s okay.
The Valley isn’t a cruel fate reserved for those who choose to lead. You don’t need to look at it, sigh, throw your hands up and say, “Work is hard and we’re all gonna die!”
The Valley is designed to teach you. And when you learn from it, The Valley loses much of its power over you.
I’ve spent all but two years of my career in The Valley, and for the longest time I absolutely hated it. I can’t say that strong enough. I despised it.
The result? I wasted years looking for someone to blame and searching for a way out.
I loved sentences that started like this: “If they would just ____________, then everything would be better.”
I was a quiet quitter before quiet quitting was cool. Thank you very much.
My Mr. Miyagi
Then, around 2018, I met my Mr. Miyagi. His name is Randy Marshall, and what he taught me changed my life.
Randy helped me see that my problem wasn’t my boss, my team, or my industry. My issues were not personal, they were positional.
My job was hard not because I was doing something wrong or because my organization was failing me. It was hard because of where I sat in the organization.
Randy helped me understand that valleys aren’t easy. They all share two unavoidable realities: tricky terrain and unpredictable weather.
Randy showed me something crucial. There is no way out of The Valley, but there is a way through. To lessen its grip on my life, I needed to change my operating system. Change the way I approach the tricky terrain and navigate the unpredictable weather.
In the end, Randy showed me that The Valley does something in you, not just for you.
There is a Way Through
I wrote The Fog of Work because right now, The Valley is grinding hard-working managers to a pulp. I wrote it for good people who want to lead well and sleep well at night.
Those navigating The Valley are hurting. Don’t believe me? Just click here, here, and here. Be warned—it’s not pretty.
For me, everything changed once I upgraded my operating system. I know you can have a similar experience.
If you’re sick and tired of being beaten down by the Valley of middle management, The Fog of Work will be the cool drink of water you’ve been looking for.
I’m not out of The Valley. It’s still very much present in my life. But it doesn’t have nearly the power over me that it used to.
I stopped looking for a way out, because there isn’t one.
I now know exactly how to find my way through, and I can’t wait to teach it to you.
Step Back and Reflect
For now, grab a journal and some coffee. Here are a few reflection questions:
When did you first realize you were in The Valley? What was the moment you knew something had fundamentally shifted?
Which side of The Valley feels heavier right now: pressure from your team or pressure from leadership?
When you think about next week, what percentage of your anxiety comes from the work itself vs. managing competing demands?
Who or what have you been blaming for The Valley, and what would change if you stopped?
Reader spotlight: Amit Nihalani
One of the most faithful readers of this Substack is my dear friend Amit Nihalani. We met at church back in 2002 and have kept in touch all these years.
Amit and his family live up in NYC Metropolitan area and he’s the director of finance for a company called Vaswani. They design furniture and fixtures for just about every major retail brand. I promise, you’ve seen their work.
Amit is also an avid reader. I asked him to share with me some of his favorite reads from the past few months, and these are his suggestions:
After Steve - “Story of life at Apple after Steve Jobs.”
The Covenant of Water - “Amazing novel covering three generations of a family and their battle with water.”
Sell it Like Serhant - “I personally think he is the best salesperson in America today. Lives a very ‘celebrity’ life but a fascinating read about a salesperson who is dedicated to his craft.”
A Great Deal on Bulk Orders
First of all, close to 60 of you responded to the last email and placed a preorder for The Fog of Work on Amazon or B&N. Thank you!!
We are well on our way to the goal of 500 pre-orders.
Remember, let me know when you place a pre-order and I’ll get a sweet sticker pack headed your way. LINKS: AMAZON or BARNES & NOBLE
This week I have a killer offer on bulk-preorders.
If you’d like to order 25+ copies for your team, I can secure discount of over 30% off and to sweeten the deal, I’ll throw in:
A free team discussion guide
Any one piece of Fog of Work merch (LINK).
A complimentary sixty-minute virtual session with your team (or if you’re in DFW, I’ll do something in person).
Respond to this email and I’ll get you hooked up!
Before you go…
I really wanted to like Southwest’s new boarding process. However, I cannot tell a lie. It’s no bueno.
No one unsubscribes from a political campaign spam text faster than me. No one!
I am so late to this parade, but The Bear is fantastic television. I secretly wish I could just show full episodes during my leadership development workshops and then discuss. So many case studies!
One of the best ways you can support my work is to share it with your friends and co-workers. Please use the share button below to make that happen.
Thanks for reading!
-Adam