What did success cost you?

I asked Dan Albaum that question about 12 minutes into our conversation, and that's pretty much when this stopped being an interview about leadership. ❤️

Dan is the author of The Giving Edge and The Impact Makers and the host of Market Impact Insights, so yes, we talk leadership. But we also talk about the stuff that doesn't usually make the leadership bio: ego, self-doubt, toxic people, the year Dan spent constantly traveling while his kids were young, and his wife Nikolett being the “jet fuel” that has carried him through some of the harder seasons.

I also challenge Dan on the premise of his newest book. Giving sounds beautiful, but what happens when we give so much that we disappear? We talk boundaries, putting your own oxygen mask on first, and why asking for help might actually be one of the greatest gifts we can give someone else.

Then we get into AI 🤖 and something Dan calls the “sea of sameness.” If AI can help all of us become more polished, productive and seemingly perfect, maybe polish isn't the advantage anymore. Maybe our weird, messy, emotional humanity is.

And then there's the empty chair.

I asked Dan who he'd put beside him if he could choose one person.

He chose his late father, a professor, mentor and author whose books Dan grew up seeing on the shelf. His father passed away before Dan published his first book. Today, Dan's books sit beside his dad's.

Yeah… we went there. ❤️

This isn't 40 minutes about how to become a better executive. It's a conversation about ambition, family, generosity, AI, confidence, regret, grace, legacy and figuring out what actually matters while we're all still here to do something about it.

This is Storytime with Lori.

The story underneath the story.

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