Big Gorgeous Goals in Uncertain Times: Why Leaders Need Vision More Than Certainty

There’s something that happens to leaders during uncertain times.

We shrink.  We move towards safety.

Not intentionally.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.

We narrow our thinking. We delay decisions. We focus on protecting what we’ve built instead of imagining what’s possible next.
And often, we call it being responsible.

Navigating Uncertainty in Leadership

Over the last few years, uncertainty has become the backdrop to many of my leadership conversations. Economic instability. AI disruption. Changing markets. Burnout that never fully left after the first half of this decade.

Even the most capable leaders are asking themselves:

Should I wait until things settle down?
Is now really the time to grow?
What if I make the wrong decision?

I understand those questions deeply. But I also believe uncertainty is precisely when bold leadership matters most. Because when uncertainty lasts long enough, smaller thinking starts to feel smart. Safe. Rational.

And that’s where leaders get stuck.

Not because they lack ambition.
Not because they lack capability.
But because uncertainty slowly trains them to think defensively instead of expansively.

The challenge is that businesses rarely thrive when we are caught in defensive leadership.

Growth requires vision.

It requires the ability to imagine a future bigger than the current circumstances. It requires leaders who are willing to make decisions before they feel completely ready. And perhaps most importantly, it requires leaders who understand that scaling a business always demands a new version of themselves.

Business Resilience

I learned this lesson firsthand while building Mabel’s Labels.

There was a moment during one particularly intense back-to-school season when our entire operation felt like it was reaching a breaking point.
Orders were flooding in. Production was overwhelmed. Teams were exhausted. Systems were stretched beyond capacity.
And standing there in the middle of the chaos, I realized something uncomfortable: We could no longer hard-work our way out of the problem.

Up until that point, hustle had been my solution to almost everything. Like many founders, the company was built through determination, grit, and a willingness to outwork anyone.

But scaling exposed a truth we could no longer ignore:

We didn’t have a workload problem. We had a systems problem.
And underneath that?
A leadership problem.

The systems, processes, and leadership structures that had gotten us to one level were no longer sufficient for where we were trying to go next.
That realization changed how I thought about growth forever.
Because Big Gorgeous Goals, the goals that stretch us beyond what feels comfortable or reasonable, they don’t simply require more effort.

They require transformation.

New systems.
New thinking.
New leadership.
New ways of trusting and empowering others.

In other words, growth stops being about doing more and starts being about becoming more.
That’s the part of leadership we don’t talk about enough.
Most people assume uncertainty means you should become more cautious. More conservative. More restrained.

Visionary Leadership

The leaders who continue to grow through uncertain times tend to do something different.
They stay connected to vision.
Not reckless optimism, or denial, or pretending that challenges don’t exist.

Vision.

The ability to continue asking bigger questions even while navigating instability.

What’s possible here?
What needs to evolve?
Who do I need to become to lead at this next level?

Those questions matter because uncertainty has a way of trapping leaders inside outdated identities.

The founder who still believes they must carry everything alone.
The executive who feels they need all the answers before acting.
The entrepreneur who believes working more is the same as leading well.

At some point, every growing business outpaces the version of leadership that created it.
That’s where transformation begins. I think many leaders today are waiting for confidence before they move forward.

But confidence rarely arrives first.
Movement creates confidence.
Action creates clarity.

Often, the willingness to pursue a Big Gorgeous Goal is exactly what pulls leaders out of fear-based thinking and back into possibility.
That’s why I believe visionary leadership matters more than ever right now.
Not because uncertainty is disappearing anytime soon.
But because uncertainty cannot become the reason we stop imagining bigger futures.

The leaders who will shape the next decade are not the ones who avoided discomfort.
They’re the ones who learn how to lead through it.

The ones who understand that uncertainty isn’t a signal to shrink.
It’s an invitation to grow differently.

And perhaps that’s the real leadership challenge in front of us right now: 
Can we continue thinking boldly while the future still feels unclear?
Because Big Gorgeous Goals were never about certainty.
They were always about courage.

Let’s create the space you’ve been putting off.