The idea that changed everything for meThe top 1 percent is not a place you reach. It is a race you choose to stay in — every single day. The only requirement is that you never stop becoming better. And the only way you learn that lesson fully is by failing fast enough to know what still needs to change. |
A personal note:
I have spent 25 years in technology leadership. And in all of that time, the single most consistent difference I have observed between the people who reach and sustain the top of their field — and those who plateau — is not talent, not resources, and not luck.
It is the decision — made quietly, daily, and without fanfare — to keep becoming a better version of themselves. More precisely, it is the willingness to fail fast, learn from it immediately, and move on without letting the failure define them.
Every leader reading this has achieved something worth acknowledging. You have worked hard, developed real capability, and earned the position you hold. This Article is not written to suggest that what you have done is insufficient. It is written to ask a more important question:
What are you becoming?
Not what have you achieved? What are you becoming? The two questions have fundamentally different answers — and they lead to fundamentally different futures.
| “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle |
The race that never ends
There is a belief held quietly by many and stated openly by few: that the top 1 percent of any field is a fixed address. A level you reach after sufficient effort, at which point the hard work of becoming is replaced by the easier work of maintaining.
This belief is the most expensive mistake a leader can make. It is also the one most likely to be reinforced by early success, which is precisely why the Fail Fast, Learn Fast philosophy matters here. The leaders who plateau are not lazy. They are leaders who stopped treating their career as a system that requires constant testing, feedback, and iteration. They graduated from the upgrade loop. And the field — which never stops moving — quietly passed them.
The frontier of every field moves continuously. The capabilities that defined the top 1 percent of technology leadership five years ago are today’s baseline requirements. Cloud strategy, data literacy, digital transformation — exceptional in 2018, table-stakes in 2024. The frontier has moved. And it will move again, faster than most leaders expect.
| IN PRACTICE Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam title in 2008. He was already ranked among the best tennis players in the world. Most people in that position refine what is working. Djokovic overhauled his diet, rebuilt his serve mechanics, and hired new coaches to improve aspects of his game he had previously considered adequate. At an age when most athletes are winding down, he was in the laboratory — running micro-experiments, failing in practice, learning faster than any opponent could track. He went on to win more Grand Slam titles than any player in history. Not because of starting talent. Because he never stopped his upgrade cycle. |
Think of yourself in versions
The most useful framework I know for continuous self-improvement is borrowed from the discipline that gave us the Fail Fast philosophy: software development. Every great piece of software exists in versions. Version 1.0 is good enough to launch. It has limitations, bugs, and capabilities not yet built. But it is in the world, generating real feedback. Version 5.0 is dramatically more capable — shaped by the learning from every version that came before it.
The top 1 percent think about themselves the same way. They are always working on their next version. And critically: they treat each version not as a destination but as a release — shipped, tested against reality, and immediately succeeded by the next build cycle.
The Personal Version Upgrade Loop
| Current version | Honest audit of what your current self does well — and where its real limits are. |
| Upgrade gap | The specific capabilities you are actively developing right now. This is where growth lives — and where failure teaches fastest. |
| Next version | The precise, defined improvement you are working toward. Specific, dated, and measurable. |
| Release | When the new capability becomes natural under real-world conditions. Not in theory — in practice. |
| Repeat | Set the next version before this one is complete. The top 1 percent are never between versions. Always. |
The upgrade gap is permanently uncomfortable. You are practising things you do not yet do well. You are temporarily incompetent in a domain you are actively developing. That discomfort is not a warning signal. It is the signal that the upgrade is working — the same signal you feel when a sprint retrospective reveals something you missed, when a project fails and teaches you what success never could. You can read the available book written by me https://www.amazon.in/Fail-Fast-Learn-Move/dp/8119263812
| FAIL FAST, LEARN FAST PRINCIPLE The absence of discomfort is the signal to worry. It means you have stopped upgrading and started coasting. A software team that never ships a failed sprint never learns at the rate of one that does. A leader who never risks temporary incompetence never grows beyond their current version. Comfort in the upgrade gap means the gap has closed — and it is time to define the next one. |
Two types of leaders. One outcome.
| Leaders who stop upgrading | Leaders who keep upgrading |
| Measure themselves against people behind them | Measure themselves against the frontier of their field |
| Practise what they already do well | Practise what they do not yet do well |
| Seek feedback that confirms their current view | Seek feedback that challenges and corrects it |
| Treat failures as things to avoid | Treat failures as data that accelerates learning |
| Invest in their current version | Invest in the version they are becoming |
| Experience comfort as success | Experience comfort as a warning sign |
The compounding truth most leaders underestimate
One percent better every week. It sounds modest. Almost not worth noting. This is not motivation. It is mathematics.
| Timeframe | Improvement | What it means |
| 1 year | +67% | A meaningfully more capable version of you — in the same role, same team. |
| 3 years | +370% | Advantages that are visible to your organisation and difficult to reverse. |
| 10 years | +14,000%+ | A compounded edge that cannot be quickly replicated by anyone starting late. |
The leaders who upgrade consistently, even marginally, over a long period build advantages that cannot be quickly replicated. And here is what the Fail Fast, Learn Fast philosophy adds to this equation: it is not just about the frequency of effort — it is about the frequency of learning cycles. A leader who attempts something difficult, fails quickly, extracts the lesson, and moves on is running more learning cycles per year than a leader who plays it safe. More cycles means more compounding.
| “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks — and then starting on the first one.” — Mark Twain |
| “Every year, I allocate 20 percent of my time to learning things with no immediate application to my current role. My team thinks I read too many books. Ten years from now, when those capabilities converge in a role that requires exactly that combination, they will understand why.” — CIO, leading Indian financial services group |
The three enemies of continuous upgrade
If continuous self-upgrade is available to any leader willing to practise it, why do most people stop? The answer is not laziness. It is three deeply human tendencies that feel entirely reasonable in the moment — and are, in aggregate, the primary barrier between where talented people end up and where they could have gone.
Enemy 1: Arrival
The most common trap. Reaching a level of achievement that feels sufficient and unconsciously declaring that you have arrived. It does not happen consciously. It happens through the accumulation of small choices to stay in what is working rather than investing in what is not yet developed. The field does not wait for comfortable leaders to decide they are ready to upgrade again.
Enemy 2: Comparison in the wrong direction
There is always someone behind you to compare yourself to. And the comparison always produces the same comfortable conclusion: you are ahead. The top 1 percent do not measure themselves against the people behind them. They measure themselves against the frontier of their field and against the version of themselves they are working to become. Both comparisons are uncomfortable. Both are necessary.
Enemy 3: The comfort of expertise
Expertise feels good. It produces efficiency, confidence, and the social rewards of being the person in the room who knows the answer. But every hour spent operating in a domain where you are already excellent is an hour not spent developing in a domain where you are not yet excellent. Over time, the leader who chooses expertise over development narrows their capability.
| FAIL FAST, LEARN FAST PRINCIPLE All three enemies share a common mechanism: they reward not failing in the short term while guaranteeing failure in the long term. The leader who never risks incompetence never updates their map of what the world now requires. The Fail Fast philosophy is not a productivity hack — it is an antidote to all three enemies, simultaneously. It makes it structurally impossible to declare arrival, because arrival is replaced by the next iteration. |
Your personal upgrade system — starting this week
Continuous upgrading does not happen through good intentions. It requires a system — brief, honest, and consistent. Here is the one that has worked for me and for the leaders I have worked with closely.
Define your current version with precision
What do you do excellently, adequately, and not yet at the level the next stage of your career will require? Write it down. Be honest. Use the feedback of people who will tell you the truth — not people who will tell you what you want to hear. This is the honest audit that every good sprint begins with.
Define your next version specifically
Not ‘be a better communicator.’ Something precise: ‘By December, I will be able to present a business case to a board without external support.’ Specificity is what separates a resolution from a release plan.
Build the practice into your operating rhythm
Not ‘when I have time,’ because that time will not come. Schedule it as a non-negotiable commitment. Protect it from operational demands. Even twenty minutes daily, practised at the edge of your current capability, compounds into transformation.
Review honestly every week
Fifteen minutes. Three questions: What did I practise this week that genuinely stretched me? What did I learn from a real situation that I can apply differently next week? Am I closing the gap between my current version and my next version at the pace I set? This is your weekly retrospective — the same discipline that makes great teams great.
Set your next version before this upgrade is complete
The top 1 percent are never between versions. They are always in the upgrade gap. Set the next target before the current one closes. This is the architecture of continuous improvement — the practice that converts occasional upgrading into a permanent competitive advantage.
| “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People |
A direct word to every leader reading this
You are already in the race. The fact that you are reading this, asking these questions, and thinking seriously about your own development means you have already made the most important choice available to you. You have chosen not to be satisfied with the current version.
That choice, made consistently over a career, is what the top 1 percent is actually made of. Not talent. Not privilege. Not a single transformational moment. The consistent, daily, compounding decision to become slightly better than you were yesterday — and to fail fast enough to learn what better even means.
| Starting today – Name your current version honestly, without softening the gaps. – Define your next version specifically, with a date and a measurable outcome. – Begin one practice this week that sits at the edge of your current capability. – Seek one piece of feedback you have been avoiding. This is where the learning lives. – Protect twenty minutes every day for the upgrade. Guard it like a board meeting. – Never, at any stage of your career, declare that you have arrived. |
The world is moving faster than it ever has. The frontier of every field is advancing with an urgency that rewards the leaders who keep upgrading — and quietly passes by the ones who do not. You have worked too hard to plateau now. You have too much left to become.
Start the upgrade.
Stay in the race.
Fail fast. Learn faster.
Never stop becoming.
| Key takeaways for every leader – The top 1 percent is not a destination. It is a race you choose to stay in — every single day. The moment you stop upgrading, the field begins to pass you. – Think of yourself in versions. Your next version is always in development. The upgrade gap — the space between who you are and who you are becoming — is where all real growth lives. – Fail Fast, Learn Fast shortens the loop between attempt and insight. More learning cycles per year means more compounding — it is not just effort, it is iteration velocity. – One percent better every week compounds to 67 percent improvement in a year. Consistent marginal improvement, sustained over a decade, produces advantages that cannot be quickly replicated. – The three enemies of continuous upgrade — Arrival, Comparison in the Wrong Direction, and the Comfort of Expertise — all feel reasonable in the moment. All three are career-limiting over time. – Build a personal upgrade system: define your current version honestly, design your next version specifically, practise at the edge of your capability, review weekly, and set the next version before this one is complete. – The leaders who sustain the top 1 percent are not the most talented. They are the ones who never stopped becoming. That choice is available to you — starting today. |
Krushna Sahoo
Director of Information Technology, JM Financial Services Ltd.
Author — Fail Fast Learn Fast and Move-On
Also read: Viksit Workforce for a Viksit Bharat
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