Recently, one of my entrepreneurial clients shared something very honest with me.Three years ago, he arrived in the Netherlands with almost nothing. But he carried one powerful belief inside him:
“I know I’m going to make it.”
And he did.
In the last few years, he built a successful company, closed big deals, and eventually bought his first luxury car. He still remembers the feeling of pride and joy driving it for the first time.
But recently he told me:
“I have everything I once wanted… but I don’t feel the same excitement anymore.”
This is something many entrepreneurs experience at some point in their journey.
In the early years, everything feels exciting.
Every deal is a victory.
Every milestone confirms that your dream is becoming reality.
But over time, something shifts.
What once felt extraordinary… slowly becomes normal.
The first big deal feels incredible.
The tenth one feels like another day at the office.
Psychologists call this hedonic adaptation; we get used to our success faster than we expect.
But often something else is happening too.
Sometimes motivation doesn’t disappear.
It’s waiting for a goal big enough to wake it up again.
When my client reflected on this, something clicked.
The next day, he sent me a message:
“I have it again! I realized there’s a bigger game for me to play.”
And then he wrote something that made me smile:
“Why couldn’t I build a €10M company?”
Suddenly, the spark was back.
Not because of the money.
But because he had discovered a new game worth playing.
What I found particularly powerful was what he said next:
“That feels scary. I’m not the best at managing and training people yet. But what if I build this together with a strategic partner? What if I become really good at onboarding, developing people, and growing the team faster?”
This is often the moment where leadership evolves.
Early success is about proving you can do it.Later success becomes about something deeper:
• Who do you need to become?
• What capabilities do you need to focus on?
• Who do you need around you?
• What things do you need to let go of?
The question shifts from:
“Can I succeed?”
to
“What would the next level leader in me look like?”
Sometimes, all it takes to reignite energy is a new challenge that stretches you again.
A new game.
A new chapter.
✨ A question for you:
What is the next game you want to play?
If you’re an entrepreneur or leader who feels your next chapter is calling, but you can’t quite see it yet, perhaps that’s exactly the conversation we should have.
