Walking-Dead Leadership: Why Most Leaders Stall at 25—and How to Wake Up
The second half of your career isn’t about proving yourself—it’s about becoming yourself.
Benjamin Franklin didn’t mess around...
“Most people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”
Translation: most people give up.
They become walking-dead leaders.
Alive on the outside. Hollow on the inside.
Still “leading,” but dragging along the same tired ideas and strategies.
Carl Jung saw this play out in his patients.
He called it individuation—the lifelong work of becoming who you’re actually meant to be, not the role you perform to fit in.
Most leaders never do it. That’s why they peak early and spend 50 years defending yesterday.
RealityOS: The Upgrade Leaders Need
Jung’s insights weren’t just therapy. They were an operating system. Call it RealityOS.
It runs on three pillars:
Purpose — Know what season you’re in.
Shadow — Own the parts of yourself you’ve been hiding.
Signals — Learn when to trust crisis, archetypes, and intuition.
Master these and you stop performing leadership—you start embodying it.
Law #1: Purpose Expires
Act I (ages 20–40): build, climb, prove.
Act II (40+): integrate, give, elevate.
Crisis hits when you play Act I’s game in Act II. You keep chasing status long after it’s empty.
Jung said, “What was true in life’s morning becomes a lie by evening.”
RealityOS Check: Run a Purpose Evolution Audit this week.
Ask:
What game am I still playing that no longer matters?
What outcome would matter now?
If I died today, what would they say I stood for?
Law #2: Your Shadow Runs the Show
Your shadow is the anger, pride, fear, or control you’ve buried.
Here’s the twist: it doesn’t stay buried. It leaks into every decision.
The exec who trashes “micromanagers” but can’t delegate? Shadow.
The entrepreneur who preaches empowerment but fears irrelevance? Shadow.
Own it—or it owns you.
RealityOS Check: Write down three qualities you hate in other leaders.
Then ask:
Where do I show up the same way?
That’s your shadow knocking.
Law #3: Masks Kill Impact
Jung called it the persona.
Leaders build masks that look good on LinkedIn but suffocate in real life:
The visionary who never admits doubt
The servant-leader who never shows weakness
Masks are tools. But if you never take them off, they become prisons.
That’s when leadership turns into performance art.
The result is a perpetual misalignment between words, actions, and perception.
RealityOS Check: Pick one low-stakes moment this week and drop the mask.
Admit a struggle. Show a crack. Notice how your team reacts.
Your team doesn’t expect you to have all the answers or always be perfect.
The Finding Peak Podcast
Early this week, we hit #2 in the Apple Business category…
Law #4: Crisis Is the Curriculum
Growth hurts. Transformation interrupts.
The market downturn, the big client walking, the personal collapse—these aren’t distractions.
They’re the syllabus for growth.
Ryan Holiday wrote the book, “The Obstacle is the Way.”
Jung’s own six-year breakdown became his breakthrough. Yours can too.
If you rush the rebuild, you resurrect the problem.
RealityOS Check: In your next crisis, pause and ask:
What version of me is this trying to kill?
What version of me is trying to be born?
This is perfectly articulated in the movie Dune:
"Paul Atreides must die, for Kwisatz Haderach to rise."
…meaning for the best version of yourself to rise, we must kill the version that is holding us back.
Law #5: You’re Running on Ancient Code
Jung found that humans share archetypes—the Hero, the Sage, the Rebel, the Ruler.
They’re not metaphors. They’re hardwired.
Your people see you through these lenses, whether you like it or not.
The trick? Choose the archetypes your team needs.
Startup? Be Hero + Creator.
Crisis? Hero + Sage.
Maturity? Sage + Caregiver.
Not abstractions—human OS.
RealityOS Check: Ask your team:
When do I feel most real as a leader?
That’s your archetype at work.
Law #6: Flaws Are Weapons
Jung again…
“What you resist, persists.”
Your flaws—impatience, control, perfectionism—aren’t bugs.
They’re features.
Most leaders file them under “weakness.”
That’s a waste.
Channel impatience into urgency.
Turn control into systems.
Flip fear into prudence.
Burn pride into standards.
RealityOS Check: Write down one “flaw” you’ve been hiding.
Recast it as a superpower.
Use it on purpose this week.
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Law #7: Gut Beats Spreadsheet
Here’s the one that makes MBAs squirm:
Data is the crutch leaders grab when they’re afraid to decide.
Your unconscious sees more than your spreadsheet.
Logic informs. Intuition decides.
Great leaders know the difference between fear and gut:
Fear feels urgent, tight, ego-driven.
Intuition feels calm, clear, expansive.
RealityOS Check: Before your next big decision, do a 60-second pause.
Breathe. Feel into the options. Choose the one that expands you.
The Rub
Most leaders manage the past.
The rare ones update their OS.
Stop playing Act I when you’re in Act II.
Face the shadow.
Drop the mask.
Use crisis as fuel.
Lead with the archetypes your team needs.
Turn your flaws into weapons.
Trust your gut when the spreadsheet blinks.
That’s RealityOS.
Not perfection. Not performance.
Presence. Truth. Courage.
Decide fast. Execute simply. Review hard.
This is the way.
Hanley
P.S. If you’re frustrated with your personal growth, if you know you’re capable of more but unsure how unlock the best version of yourself, fill out this form and let’s chat.