"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." — James Clear, Atomic Habits

"If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success." — Ecclesiastes 10:10

American folklore loves a martyr.

Did you ever learn about the legend of John Henry? He was a "steel-driving man"—a mythical worker born with a hammer in his hand. When the railroad company brought in a steam-powered drill to replace the human crews, John Henry took it as a personal insult.

He challenged the machine to a contest. Man vs. Machine. Flesh and blood vs. Steel and steam.

The contest began, and John Henry swung his hammers with a rhythm that shook the earth. He worked harder, faster, and longer than any man had ever worked before. The steam drill chugged along, relentless and unfeeling, but John Henry had something the machine didn't: Hustle.

At the end of the day, the dust settled. John Henry had driven 14 feet of steel. The steam drill had only driven nine.

John Henry won. The crowd cheered. He had proven that a man with enough grit could outwork a machine.

And then, immediately after his victory, John Henry collapsed and died. His heart exploded inside his chest.

We treat this story like a victory. It isn’t. It is a tragedy.

John Henry won the battle, but he lost the war. Why? Because the next morning, the steam drill didn't have a funeral. It didn't need to rest. It didn't need a pep talk. It was refueled, repaired, and put back to work.

John Henry was dead. The machine was just getting started.

Why Are You Trying To Be John Henry? 

Most business leaders are trying to be John Henry.

You believe that if you just swing the hammer hard enough, you can muscle your way through every bottleneck. You pride yourself on your stamina. You wear your burnout like a badge of honor. You think that because you can outwork your problems today, you can outwork them forever.

This is The Hero Trap.

The Hero Trap is Ego working hard to protect itself. It is the seductive belief that your personal effort is the secret ingredient to your company’s success. It sounds like this:

• "If I want it done right, I have to do it myself."
• "It takes too long to explain it; I'll just handle it."
• "I don't have time to learn a new tool; I have real work to do."
• "If I don't answer this email right now, I'll lose the deal."

When you operate in Hero Mode, you might win the day. You might save the deal. But you are trying to solve a mechanical problem (scaling a business) with a biological solution (human effort).

That is not a strategy. That is a suicide pact.

You have to put down the hammer and start building the drill. This is the third Core Commitment: Systems > Hustle.

What are Systems and Hustle?

SYSTEMS are the reliable bridge between the promise you make and the result you deliver. 

Systems are not bureaucratic red tape that kills creativity, personality, or humanity.

Instead, they are the recorded intelligence of your business—the leverage that allows ordinary people to produce extraordinary results. 

Systems are the only way to scale your genius without scaling your hours.

HUSTLE is the reliance on personal effort to bridge the gap between the promise you make and the result you deliver. 

Hustle is not just "working hard," Sovereign leaders work incredibly hard. 

Instead, it is the addiction to "Hero Mode"—the belief that brute force is better than a strategy. Hustle is unscalable.

Hustle is important, the reality is that systems are more important. 

Systems Are Inescapable

You cannot opt out of systems because we live in a universe of systems. 

Physically, we live within an ecosystem. Our bodies are a collection of systems (respiratory, circulatory, nervous) made up of smaller systems (cells).

Socially, we live within a system of laws and institutions. Language is a system. The economy is a system. Even your family is a system.

Your business is no different. In fact, you already have systems for everything you do (even if you aren’t aware of them). 

• Generating leads
• Following up with prospects
• Delivering your product or service
• Solving customer problems
• Collecting revenue
• Tracking expenses
• Managing your time
• Onboarding new hires

Here’s the hard truth: I’ve seen many good leaders trapped in their own (bad) systems.

When you refuse to design a system on purpose, you get a system by default. This is where Hustle enters the equation. Hustle is the tax you pay to fill in the gaps that inevitably lurk in unhealthy systems. 

What exactly is that tax? You lose peace, energy, and profits.

Hustle is a losing game because it can’t scale. 

The Anatomy of a System

If we are going to stop hustling to design better systems, we need to understand the blueprints.

You don't need an engineering degree to build a system. You just need to understand that every system—whether it’s a car engine or a sales team—has four distinct parts.

1. The Input (The Trigger): This is what starts the machine. It could be a new lead, a customer complaint, or the first of the month.
2. The Process (The Steps): This is the "black box." It is the specific set of actions that happens to the input.
3. The Feedback Loops (The Pulse): These are the signals that tell you if the system is working or not.
4. The Output (The Result): This is what you get at the end. A signed contract, a shipped product, or a happy client.

Why does this matter? 

When you are in "Hero Mode," you are the Process. You are the black box. If the input increases (more clients), the only way to get more output is for you to run hotter and faster. Eventually, you overheat, burn out and eventually crash. 

A Sovereign leader pulls themselves out of the "Process" box and stands over it, tweaking the levers so the machine runs without them.

The Lies That Keep You Trapped

Why do we resist building healthy systems? Usually, it comes down to a few myths we tell ourselves to protect our Ego.

Myth #1: "I’m intuitive and creative. Systems will box me in."

The Truth: Healthy systems create the structure that allows for creativity. 

If you are worried about where the file is saved, or how the invoice is sent, you aren't being creative; you're being an admin. Systems handle the predictable so you can create the exceptional. (We will cover more ground on this subject in chapter 5.)

Myth #2: "Systems are impersonal."

The Truth: Healthy systems allow you to operationalize genuine care.

I learned this the hard way early in my career. I was a high school pastor at a massive church—we had 600+ students every weekend. We were huge, but we didn't want to feel like an institution. My boss gave me a clear objective: "If a student stops showing up, they need to know they were missed.”

I got to work building a database in Microsoft Access from scratch to track attendance. I had no idea what I was doing, but I made it work. Data was only half the battle. We needed to make personal connections. So, we started sending personal, handwritten letters to every student who missed.

One weekend, a student named Ty walked up to my boss holding one of my letters. Later that day he asked, "Matt, did you write a letter to Ty?"

"Yeah, he’s been gone a few weeks."

He chuckled and said, "It's great you wrote a personal note. But your note doesn't sound very personal when it starts off with, 'Dear Ty, our records reflect that you've missed a few weeks of church...'"

Once my defensiveness faded, the truth stung. I had built a system, but it sucked.

I had built a system, but it sucked. It was impersonal—not because it was a system, but because it was a bad system.

Myth #3: "I can't trust anyone (or a process) else to do it."

The Truth: This isn't about quality; it's about insecurity. 

You believe your "magic touch" is required for everything. You’re still operating in Hero-mode. If you can't delegate it, you haven't defined it. A system forces you to get the process out of your head and onto paper so someone else can execute it to your standard.

Even if you are flying solo, you still need to delegate—to your future self. A system is simply a decision you make once to save yourself from making it a thousand times. This operationalizes your wisdom and drastically reduces your cognitive load. You shouldn't have to reinvent the wheel every time you need to drive the car.

Myth #4: "Systems are too rigid."

The Truth: A system isn’t a straightjacket; it’s a support structure.

Perfection is the enemy here. No system can handle 100% of reality. If you try to script every single variable, you will create a rigid bureaucracy that stifles life.

A healthy system targets the 80%. It is designed to handle the 80% of inputs that are standard and predictable. This buys you the mental freedom to handle the complex 20%—the exceptions—with your creativity and judgment.

Furthermore, systems aren't carved in stone. They are living things. They require feedback loops. When a new problem arises, you don't blame the system; you update it. A rigid system breaks under pressure; a healthy system evolves.

Escaping the Hero Trap

So, how do you actually stop being John Henry? How do you put down the hammer?

It doesn't happen by accident. Here is your three-step exit strategy.

1. Acknowledge that Hustle has hit a ceiling.

Meaningful change will never happen as long as you believe that "just a little more effort" will solve the problem. You have to admit that your current way of operating is a dead end.

Getting to the next level always requires doing things in a new way. You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created it. Innovation and reinvention are not optional; they are necessary.

2. Investigate your Time Investments.

This may feel like busy work, but you can't fix what you can't see. Most leaders are delusional about how they spend their day. We need data, not feelings.

The 14-Day Audit: For the next two weeks, I want you to track your hours. Don't overcomplicate this.

• Mid-Day: Take 5 minutes at lunch to write down what you actually did that morning.
• End-Day: Take 5 minutes before you leave to write down what you did that afternoon.

The Review: After two weeks, carve out two hours to look at the data. Go through every line item and ask three questions:

• Emotion: Did I love this or hate this?
• Energy: Did this give me life or drain me dry?
• Efficiency: Was this a high-value use of my time, or was I just spinning my wheels?

3. Commit to the Uncomfortable.

Here is the truth about why most leaders stay trapped in broken systems: Change hurts.

There is no change without loss, and there is no loss without grief. When you stop being the Hero, you lose the dopamine hit of saving the day. You lose the feeling of being "indispensable." That feels uncomfortable.

Our natural response is to avoid that discomfort and run back to the busy work. But if you want to grow your business and develop as a leader, you must stay in the discomfort long enough to build something better.

Before We Move On

If you do this audit, you are going to discover something painful. You are going to see a lot of hours that felt like work but produced zero results.

You are going to see a lot of Motion. What you want is Momentum.

There is a massive difference between the two. One leads to burnout; the other leads to the bank.

Turn the page.