England Didn't Lose Last Night. Their Leader Did.

Read time: 6 minutes

Hey, welcome back.

Last week, I talked about how our family had values for everything except ourselves, and how a jar, some paper hearts, and a four-year-old changed that. You can read that (and all past issues, here) . You can read that (and all past issues, here)​

Before we dive into the letter.

I need to get something off my chest. And then I need to tell you how Heights was involved in last night's game. And then I need to talk about leadership. Because last night was the most expensive leadership lesson I've watched play out in real time.

I Woke Up Gutted

Like every self-respecting English person this morning, I am absolutely gutted about the World Cup result. But also, weirdly, proud. Because the players showed up. Every single one of them. They gave everything they had. You could see it. You could feel it through the screen.

The loss had nothing to do with the players.

Something sort of secret

Heights has been supplying the England squad since the last Euros. The license to advertise this fact starts at £1M so we can't really shout about it, but that doesn't stop it from being a fact, and we've got the receipts (we literally invoice the FA 😂)

As part of our commitment to making the world's best supplements, we went through the process of becoming Informed Sport certified. That means every single batch we produce is tested for purity. We're in the 0.00001% of supplement companies who do this. We originally did it for our customers, but it turns out elite sports teams require this level of certification for anything their players put in their bodies.

Back in February I received our confirmation from Mike, who used to be head of performance at UKSI (the UK Sports Institute, who look after our Olympic athletes) and is now head of performance at England and the FA.

Admittedly, the order frequency is a bit random because the players are with their clubs in between international windows. But knowing that the England squad is using Heights, that they're taking our Biotic+ for gut health and strong minds, our Magnesium+ for recovery, and our Vitals+ for the foundation, that meant something to me going into last night.

So like any patriot, I was thrilled knowing the lads would show guts, stay fit, and recover well.

Working with elite athletes has been awesome. I even got invited to the Wimbledon final for the first time with Heights on Sunday - that was a far more enjoyable and less stressful experience, but we digress (and yes, I'm just showing off, forgive me)

What I Watched Happen In 15 Minutes

England were in it. Properly in it. The players were giving 110%. The energy was right. The momentum was building. You could feel something shifting in our direction.

And then the substitutions started.

Attackers came off. Defenders came on. The shape of the entire team changed. We went from a side that was pushing, pressing, hunting for the win, to a side that was sitting back, trying to hold what we had, hoping the clock would run down.

We stopped playing to win. We started trying not to lose. And anyone who watches football at this level knows the difference between those two things. It's visible. It's felt by every player on the pitch. And once a team shifts into that mode, getting out of it is almost impossible because the belief has already cracked.

Within minutes, the greatest player of all time took us apart. You can't shut the front door if your opponent has the skeleton key. Argentina walked through it like it was open.

The result felt inevitable from the moment those substitutions were made. Everyone watching knew it. And I'd bet the players knew it too.

You Can't Fault The Players

I want to make this really clear because it matters for the point I'm about to make.

The players were exceptional. They executed. They ran. They fought. When they were allowed to play their game, they were competitive against one of the best teams on the planet. Certainly can't fault them for last night's effort.

Certainly can fault the leader.

This was a leadership decision that changed the game before our eyes. Defensive, desperate, negative tactics that told the squad, and told the world, that the manager didn't believe his own team could hold it together going forward. And once your team senses that you don't believe they can win, the spell breaks. The confidence evaporates. The momentum dies. And Argentina, who believe they can win from any position, walked straight through the gap that the fear created.

This Happens In Business All The Time

I've watched this exact pattern play out in companies. In my own companies. In startups I've invested in. In teams I've advised.

You're building momentum. The product is working. The team is firing. Revenue is climbing. You can feel something good happening and everyone around you can feel it too. There's an energy in the building that's hard to describe but obvious when it's there.

And then the stakes get higher. A big deal is on the table. A competitor makes a move. A board meeting is coming. The pressure mounts. And instead of trusting the team and the process that built the momentum in the first place, the leader flinches.

They slow down decision-making. They add approval layers. They pull back on the aggressive strategy that was working and replace it with something safer. They start protecting what they've built instead of continuing to build it. They bring on the defenders.

The team feels it immediately. Maybe nobody says anything, but the energy shifts. People start second-guessing themselves because the person at the top is second-guessing them. The initiative that was about to ship gets one more review cycle. The hire that was about to close gets put on hold. The campaign that was performing gets paused because someone got nervous about the spend.

And the competitor, the one who's still playing with belief, walks through the door you just opened for them.

What Argentina Keep Teaching Us

Argentina are probably the best team on the world stage right now. And they keep demonstrating the same things over and over.

They play every minute like the result is still undecided. No lead is safe against them. No deficit makes them give up. They have this collective refusal to accept that the game is over until the whistle actually blows. In business, the companies that keep pushing when things look settled are the ones that overtake you while you're protecting your position.

And they play with belief. Visible, obvious, almost irrational belief. When both teams have equal talent and equal preparation, the one that believes it belongs at the top usually ends up there. And the one that plays with fear, the one trying to protect a lead instead of extending it, usually finds a way to hand it back. That's what we watched last night. Two equally matched teams separated entirely by what was happening between the ears.

Momentum Is Everything

At Heights, we talk about momentum constantly. How it builds. How it compounds. How easily a bad decision from the top can kill it.

Momentum is fragile in a way that most leaders don't appreciate until they've broken it. It takes months to build and minutes to destroy. And the most common way leaders destroy it is by getting scared at the exact moment they should be pressing forward. By bringing on the defenders when the game is there to be won.

I've done this myself. There have been moments at Heights where things were going well and I pulled back because the success felt too good and I was worried about what might go wrong. Every time I did that, the energy in the team dipped. The pace slowed. The thing that was working stopped working and it always took longer to rebuild the momentum than it took to break it.

The best decisions I've made as a founder were the ones where things were going well and I chose to accelerate instead of protect. To trust the team. To keep the attackers on the pitch. To play for the win instead of playing for the draw.

The Question For Anyone Leading A Team

If you're leading a team right now, whether that's a company, a department, a project, or anything else, ask yourself honestly: when the pressure was highest this year, did you trust your team to finish the job? Or did you pull them back?

Did you keep the attackers on? Or did you start substituting defenders because you were scared of what might happen if things went wrong?

Because your team knows the difference. They always know. They can feel when the leader believes in them and they can feel when the leader is hedging. And their performance will mirror whichever one they sense.

Last night proved this on the biggest stage in the world. Teamwork makes the dream work, but only if the leader can make the right decisions in the tough moments when the pressure is on and the finish line is in sight. Fear kills more dreams than belief ever could. We watched it happen in real time, in front of millions of people, in about 15 minutes.

To playing to win,

Dan

P.S. Genuinely proud of the England players. Every single one of them. Sometimes you do everything right and the decisions above you let you down. If you've ever experienced that at work, you know exactly how those lads felt walking off that pitch last night. And if not - maybe you were the problem after all and could do with some self-reflection 😜

Onwards and one day we'll reach out Heights 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ♥️

When the Dust Settles by Lucy Easthope An audiobook on disaster management from a career in crisis, a great read Listen Here Graham Hancock - Diary Of A CEO Loved this alternative history view from Graham Hancock Listen Here Dear England The superb theatre show turned into an excellent series on BBC I player, timely. Watch Here

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In my goal to help more entrepreneurs/people who are looking to level up their careers, I've just started taking 1-1 consulting calls (only 1 a week) Why book a call? Some of my expertise/success: I've built 6 startups. 3 fails, 1 win, and 2 still going. E-Commerce: Heights - with revenue over $40M a year. Community: Foundrs, one of the UK's top founder communities Podcasting: Leaders Media - Bootstrapped to #1 in business and 10M downloads​ Health/Mental Health: Overcame depression, insomnia, burnout and anxiety in pursuit of success​ Angel Investing: I've invested in over 100 companies Personal Brand: Over 400,000 followers across social Hear me on Diary of A CEO with Steven Bartlett​ So if you're interested in booking a session with me to talk all things business or building a personal brand, book for 30-minutes or 45-minutes. (limited spots). Book a Call with Dan

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