What if you could start fresh?
Not caring about the past, fixing all the mistakes you made, and not losing a single breath of sleep over them. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
In this blog, I’m going to show you a technique that promises exactly that—for your business and for your life—a way to start new after a long setback.
Warning!
This is not a quick 5-minute ritual or a money-manifestation trick. If that’s what you’re looking for, this blog isn’t for you.
This technique is rooted in human evolutionary psychology and has been practiced by leaders who made some of the greatest comebacks in history.
So, thank you for your time—and let’s begin.
Political Phoenix: Leaders Who Defied Political Death
Winston Churchill's political career was a masterclass in resilience through repeated failures. By 1932, Churchill appeared to be a washed-up politician relegated to what historians call his "wilderness years". After serving in multiple high-profile government positions, he found himself completely out of power, dismissed by his own Conservative Party as an "over-the-hill, Edwardian era throwback".
Churchill's spectacular failures included the disastrous 1915 Dardanelles campaign that led to his resignation, his stubborn opposition to Indian independence that made him seem out of touch, and his support for the unpopular King Edward VIII during the abdication crisis. By the mid-1930s, he was entering his 60s with seemingly no prospects for a return to power.
Yet Churchill's unwavering warnings about Nazi Germany, initially dismissed as alarmist, proved prophetic. When Hitler's threat became undeniable in 1939, Churchill's earlier "failures" suddenly looked like foresight. In May 1940, at age 65, he became Prime Minister and led Britain through its finest hour in World War II. His eight-year journey from political exile to wartime leader demonstrates how persistence through failure can lead to historic triumph.
Abraham Lincoln: Failure as Foundation for Greatness
Abraham Lincoln's path to greatness was paved with spectacular failures. His early career reads like a litany of defeats: lost his job in 1831, defeated for state legislature in 1832, failed in business in 1833, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1836, and lost races for Congress, Senate, and Vice President multiple times.
Yet Lincoln's failures taught him invaluable lessons about perseverance and resilience. Each defeat strengthened his resolve rather than breaking his spirit. When he finally won the presidency in 1860—just two years after losing his Senate race—he brought with him the wisdom gained from years of setbacks. His experience with failure prepared him to lead the nation through its greatest crisis and emerge as perhaps America's greatest president.
What both had in common was this simple strategy that most fail to recognise, including me
- The Proving Ground. The comeback begins with a fundamental cognitive reframing of the setback. The leader must consciously reject the narrative of defeat and redefine the period of exclusion as a strategic opportunity for deep, focused work. This requires resisting the immediate, emotional urge to fight back, lash out, or engage in public recriminations. Instead, the leader strategically retreats to a personal "Chartwell"—be it a physical office, a research project, or a period of intense study—with the singular goal of becoming the most informed and authoritative person in their field on the core issue at hand. This initial phase is about building the unshakeable foundation of expertise and data from which all future authority will flow. It is a period of quiet, intense preparation before the public campaign begins.
- The Narrative Forge. Armed with the expertise gained in the Proving Ground, the leader enters the Churchillian phase of the Gambit. The task is to forge and broadcast a powerful, clear, and consistent public narrative. This narrative must diagnose the central problem with bracing clarity and articulate a compelling vision for the future. This is accomplished through sustained and disciplined communication: writing influential articles, publishing research, delivering speeches, or building a successful proof-of-concept on a smaller scale. The objective is not necessarily to win a popular consensus immediately—indeed, like Churchill's, the message may be unpopular at first. The goal is to make one's perspective indispensable to the future conversation, to shift the terms of the debate, and to become the intellectual and moral center of the issue.
- The Rival-Ally Scan. While the public narrative is being prosecuted, the leader simultaneously initiates the Lincolnian track. This involves a private, systematic process of identifying and engaging key rivals, powerful stakeholders, and influential dissenters. This step requires immense ego-subjugation and emotional control. The outreach is not about seeking approval or compromising the core vision. It is an intelligence-gathering and relationship-building mission. The leader seeks to understand the world from the rival's perspective: What are their ambitions? What are their constraints? What are their legitimate concerns? The goal is to listen more than to speak, to find areas of potential alignment, and to identify those rivals who, under the right circumstances, could become allies. This discreet process lays the groundwork for a future coalition without publicly diluting the strength of the leader's core message.
- Anchored Agility. The final step is the execution of the comeback itself, when a crisis or opportunity makes the leader's return possible. Success at this stage depends on a principle called "Anchored Agility." The "Anchor" is the leader's non-negotiable core vision, the central principle that was forged in the Proving Ground and broadcast in the Narrative Forge. This anchor must be defended publicly and without compromise. The "Agility" is the tactical and political flexibility used to implement that vision. This is where the fruits of the Rival-Ally Scan are harvested. The leader uses the coalition of "rival-allies" to navigate organizational or political realities, making tactical compromises on the "how" without ever compromising on the "what" or the "why." This mirrors Lincoln's handling of the Emancipation Proclamation—achieving a revolutionary goal through pragmatic and politically astute means, supported by a broad, if internally contentious, coalition.
Scenario 1: The Ousted CEO
A visionary CEO of a major technology firm is forced out by a conservative board of directors. Her long-term, ambitious R&D initiatives, aimed at pioneering a disruptive new technology, have been slow to yield profits.
The board, under pressure from activist investors, replaces her with a CEO known for cost-cutting and maximizing short-term shareholder value. Her reputation is damaged, and she is seen as a brilliant but impractical leader.
- Step 1: The Proving Ground. The ousted CEO resists the temptation to engage in a public battle with the board or leak damaging stories to the press. She issues a single, gracious statement wishing the company well. She uses her significant severance package not to retire, but to fund a small, private research group—a modern "Chartwell." Her team's sole focus is to analyze and model the very disruptive technological trend she was pursuing, gathering data on its inevitable impact on the entire industry. For 18 months, she is publicly silent but privately working relentlessly to become the world's leading expert on this specific future.
- Step 2: The Narrative Forge. Once her research yields a compelling and data-rich thesis, she begins the Churchillian public campaign. She co-authors a deeply researched book titled The Inevitable Shift, which lays out, in stark terms, the existential threat facing companies that cling to the old model. She begins publishing influential articles in major business journals and speaking at key industry conferences. Her message is consistent, data-driven, and alarming: adapt or perish. She doesn't attack her former company directly; instead, she uses its current, publicly celebrated "efficiency" as a case study for a dangerous and short-sighted strategy.
- Step 3: The Rival-Ally Scan. While her public profile is rising, she initiates the Lincolnian private track. She requests a quiet lunch with the chairman of the board who fired her, not to re-litigate the past, but to share some of her group's findings as a professional courtesy. She maintains respectful, periodic contact with two other influential board members. She even has a private meeting with her successor, the new CEO, framing her research not as a threat, but as vital intelligence for the industry's long-term survival. She listens to their concerns about quarterly pressures and acknowledges the difficult position they are in. She is building bridges, not burning them.
- Step 4: Anchored Agility. Two years after her ouster, the market begins to shift exactly as her research predicted. Her former company, having gutted its R&D, sees its market share plummet. Her book is now seen as prophetic. The board, facing a full-blown crisis, realizes its mistake. Because of her powerful public narrative (the Anchor), she is the only credible candidate to save the company. And because of her discreet private outreach (the Agility), the board does not see her as an antagonist seeking revenge, but as a potential savior. They bring her back as Executive Chairwoman. She implements her original vision, but with the tactical support of a board—and even a chastened CEO, now her subordinate—who were once her rivals but are now aligned with her mission.
Scenario 2: The Failed Project Manager
A mid-level manager at a large corporation champions an ambitious, innovative internal project. The project is high-risk, high-reward, but after 18 months, it fails to meet its initial milestones and is cancelled by senior leadership.
Her reputation for execution is damaged, and her rival, who advocated for a more conservative approach, is promoted.
- Step 1: The Proving Ground. The manager accepts the decision without complaint. She requests a lateral move to a less glamorous but stable division of the company. In her own time, she conducts a thorough, honest post-mortem of her failed project, documenting not just what went wrong, but also the valuable technological assets and team skills that were developed before its cancellation. This analysis becomes her Proving Ground.
- Step 2: The Narrative Forge. She does not broadcast her findings widely. Her "public" is the company itself. She identifies a smaller, less critical business problem in her new division and applies a scaled-down version of her original project's technology to solve it. It works spectacularly, saving the division a modest but measurable amount of money. She writes a concise, data-driven internal report on this success. She repeats this process on another small project. She is not talking about grand visions; she is creating a portfolio of small, undeniable wins, forging a new narrative of practical innovation.
- Step 3: The Rival-Ally Scan. She schedules a coffee meeting with the very rival who was promoted over her. She congratulates him on his success and offers to share the technology from her small, successful projects, explaining how it could help his team meet its goals. She is turning a rival into a customer, and potentially an ally. She also meets with the senior executive who cancelled her original project, not to say "I told you so," but to present her new, successful applications as a valuable return on the company's initial, failed investment.
- Step 4: Anchored Agility. A year later, the company faces a new competitive threat that requires the very kind of innovation her original project was designed for. Senior leadership, having seen her series of small, practical successes (the Anchor) and reassured by the support of her former rival (the Agility), re-approves her original project, but this time with a more realistic, phased rollout based on the lessons she learned. Her comeback is not to her old job, but to the leadership of the very initiative that once defined her failure.
Conclusion: Rising from Setbacks
The stories of Churchill, Lincoln, and countless modern leaders show us that failure is not the end—it is the proving ground for greatness. Whether you’re an ousted CEO, a project manager with a failed initiative, or simply someone struggling with personal setbacks, the path forward is clear: retreat strategically, rebuild your expertise, craft a compelling narrative, build bridges even with rivals, and return anchored in vision but agile in execution.
Comebacks aren’t accidents. They are carefully prepared resurgences—born in silence, built with discipline, and unleashed when the moment demands it. If Churchill could return from political obscurity and Lincoln could rise from repeated defeats, then so can you.
Let’s Keep This Conversation Alive
If this post gave you a new way to think about setbacks and comebacks, I’d love it if you could:
- Share it on your social media—someone in your circle may need this reminder today.
- Email me directly at with your thoughts or questions. I read every email, and I’d be glad to continue the conversation with you.
Your next comeback could be the one that defines your legacy.