You Have 36 Months to Become Unreasonable

Why the coming transformation demands leaders who refuse to play by yesterday's rules—and the operating system to make it happen.

I was sitting on a board call when it hit me.

The CEO—smart guy, built a solid company—was explaining why they couldn't move faster on a critical initiative.

"We need to be reasonable about this," he said. "The market might just not be ready."

And I thought: You're about to get crushed.

Not by his competitors. Not by market forces.

By his own "reasonableness."

Because here's what I've learned after watching hundreds of leaders over my career: the ones who stayed "reasonable" are the ones scrambling to catch up now.

The ones who went unreasonable?

They're building the future.

DAN KOE

just dropped a truth bomb that every leader needs to hear: we have about 36 months before the definition of "making it" gets completely rewritten.

AI. Economic restructuring. Power redistribution.

It's all happening faster than anyone predicted.

But here's what most leaders are missing—this isn't just about surviving change.

This is about leading through it.

The leaders who understand this will dominate the next 36 months.

The rest will spend those months explaining why their "reasonable" approach couldn't keep pace with an unreasonable world.

I've been there. I know what it feels like to play it safe while watching others build what you wish you had the guts to attempt.

That's why I built RealityOS.

Not as another leadership framework.

As an operating system for leaders who refuse to be reasonable.

Let me show you what that looks like.

The 36-Month Reality Check

Dan Koe's thesis is simple and terrifying:

AI will keep replacing jobs whether we like it or not.

Business as we know it is about to change completely.

This is our last window before everything gets regulated and systematized.

The future is coming "intensely fast."

Most people are asking the wrong questions.

• Will my job survive?

• How do I make money in this new world?

• How do I protect my marketshare?

Leaders need to think bigger.

This isn't just about careers getting disrupted or businesses struggling to grow.

It's about the entire game of human organization getting rewritten.

I've watched this pattern before. Three massive power shifts, each one faster than the last.

First, the Internet gave everyone access to knowledge.

Suddenly, you didn't need a university to learn.

Schools and institutions lost their monopoly.

Then, social media gave everyone a platform.

You didn't need a publisher or media company to reach an audience.

Traditional gatekeepers got bypassed.

My insurance friends reading might remember my message back in 2014, “We are no longer the gatekeepers of insurance information.”

Now, AI is giving everyone superpowers.

You don't need a massive team to create, automate, and scale.

The old advantages—resources, authority, established networks—matter less every day.

Here's what this means for you as a leader: The tools to build, influence, and scale are now available to anyone with vision and intensity.

Traditional leadership best practices?

They're becoming irrelevant.

The leaders who will thrive aren't the ones optimizing existing systems.

They're building entirely new ones.

They're not playing today's game better.

They're creating tomorrow's rules.

This is why "unreasonable" leadership isn't just relevant—it's essential.

When the fundamental assumptions about value creation are getting rewritten in real-time, reasonable responses based on historical precedent don't just fail.

They're actively dangerous.

The 36-month window isn't arbitrary.

It's the timeframe where current trends hit a tipping point and the old playbook becomes completely obsolete.

Leaders waiting for clarity will get caught in the transition with no path forward.

Leaders hedging their bets will get crushed by those who commit fully.

But leaders who embrace unreasonable approaches—who build for the world that's coming instead of the world that's ending—will capture disproportionate value as everything accelerates.

The question isn't whether this transformation is happening.

The question is whether you'll be ready to lead through it.

And that requires a completely different operating system.

Why "Normal" Leadership Dies in 36 Months

I used to think leadership development was about becoming better at the game everyone else was playing.

Build consensus. Manage risk. Optimize processes. Maintain stability. Get approval from stakeholders.

This is how every leader has been taught for over a century.

This is the classic leadership playbook, right?

It worked when change was slow and everyone was playing by the same rules.

But when the rules themselves are getting rewritten by forces beyond any organization's control?

Those approaches become anchors, not engines.

I learned this the hard way.

Early in my career I was working for a company that was "doing everything right" according to traditional leadership wisdom.

Great culture. Solid processes. Talent rich team.

They were the poster child for reasonable leadership.

Yet growth was flat. It became more and more difficult to answer investor and stakeholders questions as why growth was flat.

We were following the standard process.

Everyone agreed, but the lack of results was undeniable.

Something had to change.

My recommendation…revert back to thinking like a startup. I asked the question, “If we were starting from zero today, how would we operate?”

The startup version of our company operated from completely different assumptions.

• It assumed disruption, antaginazation and lean scaling was the default state.

• It treated consensus as a sign of insufficient ambition.

• It believed the biggest risk was not taking enough risk.

• It prioritized creating value for future stakeholders over obtaining approval from current ones.

The "reasonable" company is still trying to figure out what happened.

The unreasonable startup just got acquired.

That's when I realized something:

Unreasonable leaders don't just think differently. They operate differently.

This isn't recklessness disguised as leadership.

It's systematic intensity applied to building the future, rather than optimizing the present.

And it requires a completely different operating system.

That's why I created RealityOS.

Whether through direct experience inside an organization, as the founder/CEO or leadership coaching, I’ve been collecting and applying these principles my entire career.

RealityOS: Leadership Framework for Unreasonable Success

The RealityOS framework is not another feel-good leadership program.

It’s not motivational concepts that sound good in meetings.

It’s a systematic approach to turning unreasonable ambition into unreasonable results.

Traditional leadership development emphasizes the importance of soft skills and emotional intelligence.

Those things matter, but they're not enough for what's coming.

What unreasonable leaders need are the three core capabilities that will determine success in the next 36 months:

• Accelerated learning.

• Authentic persuasion.

• Relentless execution.

RealityOS gives you exactly that through nine integrated protocols.

These aren't personality changes or style adoptions.

They're systematic ways to amplify your existing strengths while addressing the gaps that prevent most leaders from achieving unreasonable results.

But before I show you the specific protocols, you need to understand how they map to the three superpowers Dan Koe says are essential for thriving in this transformation.

The Three Superpowers (And How to Actually Develop Them)

Dan Koe identifies three capabilities that separate leaders who thrive from those who merely survive:

Learning. Persuasion. Execution.

What we need is a systematic way to develop these at the speed and intensity required for unreasonable results.

That's where RealityOS transforms insight into action.

Each superpower maps directly to specific protocols that give you a practical pathway from understanding what needs to be done to actually doing it consistently.

Superpower 1: Learning That Actually Accelerates You

Dan defines learning as "the ability to adapt and figure out what actions you must take to get a specific result."

Most leaders approach this reactively.

They wait until they need to know something, then scramble to acquire it under pressure.

Unreasonable leaders build learning into their operating system.

Adaptation becomes automatic, not exceptional.

Here's how:

The Standards Stack

This protocol establishes non-negotiable standards for how you acquire, process, and apply new information.

Not learning goals. Not reading lists.

Standards for how quickly you adapt and how thoroughly you integrate new capabilities.

Most leaders have standards for their team's performance but no standards for their own learning velocity.

They'll demand their people hit specific metrics but have no metrics for how quickly they acquire new capabilities or adapt to changing circumstances.

The Standards Stack changes this.

You define ten "I don't..." statements that establish clear boundaries around learning behaviors.

• "I don't consume information without immediately identifying how it applies to current challenges."

• "I don't attend meetings without preparing at least one question that could change our approach."

• "I don't end any week without identifying at least one assumption I held that proved incorrect."

These aren't arbitrary rules.

They're systematic approaches to ensuring learning happens continuously, not episodically.

And that new information gets integrated into action, not filed away for "someday."

Hard-Path First

This protocol ensures your learning focuses on the most challenging and impactful areas, not the most comfortable ones.

Simple rule: identify the hardest task on your daily agenda and complete it first.

This creates what I call "courage on cue."

This is a big part of why I cold plunge almost every morning. It sucks. I don’t want to do it. But after sitting in freezing cold water for three minutes addressing a tough challenge or responding to difficult email feels easy.

Instead of avoiding difficult challenges until you have no choice but to address them under pressure, you tackle them when your energy and focus are at their peak.

For learning, this means prioritizing knowledge and skills that are difficult to acquire but essential for future success.

Instead of consuming easy content that confirms what you already believe, you systematically seek out information that challenges your assumptions and requires you to develop new capabilities.

When you combine Standards Stack with Hard-Path First, you create a learning system that operates at unreasonable speed and intensity.

You're not just staying current.

You're systematically developing capabilities that don't yet exist in your industry.

You're positioning yourself to lead change instead of follow it.

Superpower 2: Persuasion That Builds Real Influence

Dan describes persuasion as "the ability to build trust and attract people to a mutually beneficial vision."

Most leaders treat this as a communication skill.

Something you do when you need to convince someone of something.

Unreasonable leaders understand that persuasion is actually a systematic practice of building credibility through consistent action.

In a world where everyone has access to the same communication tools, authentic persuasion becomes about demonstrating competence and commitment publicly, repeatedly, and measurably.

Public Reps Protocol

This transforms persuasion from an occasional activity into a systematic practice.

You choose a specific arena—posting insights, conducting outreach, demonstrating new capabilities—and commit to a specific number of repetitions within a defined timeframe.

This isn't about becoming an influencer.

It's about systematically building the evidence base that supports your vision and demonstrates your commitment to it.

Every public action becomes a "rep" that builds credibility and attracts people who share your vision.

The power is that it forces you to clarify your thinking and test your ideas in real-time.

When you commit to sharing insights publicly on a regular basis, you can't rely on vague concepts or untested theories.

You have to develop clear, actionable perspectives that create value for others.

This process of public iteration accelerates your own learning while building the trust and attention that enable persuasion.

Meaning Meter

This protocol ensures your persuasion efforts align with deeper purpose, not just immediate objectives.

You score every major project on three dimensions: impact on others, alignment with your core mission, and contribution to your personal growth.

Anything below 7.5 out of 10 gets deleted or delegated.

This prevents the common leadership trap of becoming so focused on short-term persuasion—convincing people to support immediate initiatives—that you lose sight of the larger narrative that gives your leadership meaning and sustainability.

When you combine Public Reps with the Meaning Meter, you create a persuasion system that builds authentic influence, not just temporary compliance.

People are attracted to your vision not because you're skilled at selling it, but because you're consistently demonstrating your commitment to it through meaningful action.

Superpower 3: Execution That Actually Builds Capability

Dan defines execution as "the ability to turn ideas into reality through automation, creation, and delegation."

Most leaders approach this tactically.

They focus on getting things done efficiently within existing constraints.

Unreasonable leaders approach execution strategically.

True execution isn't just about completing tasks.

It's about systematically building the capabilities and systems that enable increasingly ambitious ideas to become a reality.

Ownership Ledger

This protocol creates systematic accountability for results.

Each week, you track both wins and losses, along with a specific analysis of how you created each outcome.

This isn't about celebrating successes or beating yourself up over failures.

It's about developing pattern recognition for the specific actions and decisions that drive results.

Most leaders are good at taking credit for successes but poor at taking responsibility for failures.

Or they acknowledge failures but can't identify the specific behaviors that created them.

The Ownership Ledger forces you to develop clear understanding of the causal relationships between your actions and your results.

Two columns: "Result" and "How I Created It."

For each significant outcome—positive or negative—you identify the specific decisions, actions, or omissions that contributed to that result.

This creates a database of execution patterns you can use to double down on behaviors that drive success and eliminate behaviors that create problems.

Sacrifice Audit

This protocol ensures your execution efforts focus on the highest-impact activities, not just the most urgent ones.

You explicitly identify what you're sacrificing for each major commitment and regularly evaluate whether those trade-offs are still generating acceptable returns.

When you think “sacrifice” think “What am I saying no to?”

Most leaders make sacrifices unconsciously.

They say yes to new commitments without considering what they're giving up.

They continue investing time and energy in activities that no longer serve their larger objectives.

The Sacrifice Audit makes these trade-offs conscious and systematic.

You list what you're sacrificing (time, energy, other opportunities) and what those sacrifices are buying (specific outcomes, capabilities, relationships).

When the return on investment becomes unclear or insufficient, you renegotiate the commitment or eliminate it entirely.

This creates "conscious trade-offs" instead of "creeping resentment."

You make deliberate choices about where to focus your limited resources instead of gradually accumulating commitments that drain your energy without advancing your objectives.

When you combine the Ownership Ledger with the Sacrifice Audit, you create an execution system that operates at unreasonable efficiency.

You're not just getting more things done.

You're systematically focusing on activities that create the most value while eliminating activities that create the most drag.

The Integration Challenge: Becoming a Philosopher-Builder

Dan Koe makes a crucial point about the future of leadership:

It demands that we merge what have traditionally been opposites.

• Programmers and marketers.

• Big picture and technical details.

• Spiritual and practical.

• Philosophers and scientists.

"The future demands that we merge these polar ends," he says, "because a builder has always needed a thinker, and a programmer not paired with a marketer almost always leads to a disappointing number of users."

This cuts to the heart of why most leadership development fails to prepare leaders for what's coming.

Traditional approaches force you to choose:

• Are you a visionary or an operator?

• A strategist or a tactician?

• A people person or a systems person?

But unreasonable leaders understand these distinctions are artificial constraints that limit your ability to create value in a rapidly changing world.

The leaders who will dominate the next 36 months are those who can seamlessly integrate philosophical depth with systematic execution.

I learned this lesson watching two different CEOs handle the same type of crisis.

CEO #1 was a brilliant visionary. Could see around corners, inspire teams, paint compelling pictures of the future.

But when it came to execution? Chaos.

No systems. No accountability. No way to turn vision into reality.

CEO #2 was an execution machine. Systems for everything. Metrics tracked religiously. Operations ran like clockwork.

But no inspiring vision. No deeper purpose. No ability to adapt when the market shifted.

Both companies struggled.

• The visionary couldn't scale.

• The operator couldn't pivot.

That's when I realized RealityOS needed to do more than develop individual capabilities.

It needed to integrate them into a coherent operating system that bridges vision and reality.

Here's how that integration works:

The Meaning Meter ensures your systematic execution (through protocols like Ownership Ledger and Sacrifice Audit) remains aligned with deeper purpose and long-term vision.

You're not just getting things done efficiently.

You're ensuring your efficiency serves meaningful objectives.

The Public Reps Protocol forces you to translate abstract vision into concrete action that creates value for others.

You can't just think big thoughts.

You have to demonstrate your thinking through consistent, measurable action that builds credibility and attracts support.

The Reality Check-In serves as the integration point for the entire system.

Every Sunday, 30 minutes, four questions:

• What's true?

• What moved the needle?

• Where did resistance show up?

• What's Monday's single hard thing?

These questions force you to operate simultaneously as philosopher and builder.

"What's true?" requires philosophical honesty about your current situation and the broader context you're operating in.

"What moved the needle?" requires systematic analysis of which actions created the most value.

"Where did resistance show up?" requires both psychological insight and tactical problem-solving.

"What's Monday's single hard thing?" requires you to translate insight into immediate action.

This integration creates what I call "systematic wisdom."

The ability to consistently make decisions that serve both immediate objectives and long-term vision, even under pressure and uncertainty.

Most leaders operate with either systematic execution that lacks deeper purpose, or philosophical vision that lacks systematic implementation.

• The first creates efficient mediocrity.

• The second creates inspiring irrelevance.

But when you integrate both through RealityOS, you create something different:

The ability to build meaningful systems that create value at scale while remaining aligned with deeper purpose and long-term vision.

This is what Dan means when he talks about becoming a philosopher-builder.

It's not about adding philosophical thinking to your operational skills.

It's not about adding operational skills to your philosophical insights.

It's about developing an integrated approach that makes the distinction between thinking and doing irrelevant.

In the coming transformation, this integration becomes essential, not optional.

The pace of change will be too fast for leaders who need to switch between visionary mode and execution mode.

The complexity of challenges will be too great for leaders who can either think deeply or act systematically, but not both simultaneously.

The leaders who thrive will be those who operate as philosopher-builders by default (Thank you Dan Koe for concept).

Who can think systemically while acting decisively.

Who can maintain long-term vision while adapting rapidly to changing circumstances.

Who can build meaningful systems while remaining grounded in practical reality.

Your 36-Month Operating System (Starting This Sunday)