The Final Sprint

Good morning friends,

December hit different this year.

I was on a call last week with one of our portfolio companies - the same founder who, back in February, wasn’t sure she’d make it through Q1. Her voice was different. Calmer. She told me they just closed their biggest contract of the year. Not because December was easy, but because everything she built in the hard months finally clicked.

Meanwhile, I know some of you are reading this between putting out fires. The calendar is packed. Your phone won’t stop. There’s that massive order, the staffing puzzle you’re still solving, and about seventeen decisions that need to happen before close of business today.

This is the final sprint. And if you’re running it, I see you.

Here’s what I want you to know before the madness peaks:

You’re not just surviving this season. You’re leading through it.

Every business article out there is talking about Q4 strategy and holiday marketing tactics. What they don’t tell you is what it actually feels like to be the person holding it all together.

The exhaustion of working 70-hour weeks while everyone else plans holiday parties. The weight of making sure your team has a good Christmas while you’re not sure you’ll take a real day off until January. The pressure of knowing that if you drop the ball, real people are affected - your employees, your customers, your family.

I’ve been there. As I write this newsletter, I’m juggling the trip coordination for our annual Christmas activity for children and moms in need in Bolivia while we are trying to put together a new product for my newest startup without abandoning the companies in our portfolio.

I get it!

What you’re doing is hard. And you’re doing it anyway.

Because here’s what happens when we sprint through November and December without pausing: We forget to look around. We forget to notice what we’ve built. This stress you’re managing? It exists because you created something that matters enough to be stressful.

Let’s take inventory:

Your customers - yes, even the difficult ones - chose you. In a world of infinite options, they picked your business. That’s not random. That’s because you deliver something worth paying for and coming back for.

Your team - the ones showing up every day, solving problems you don’t even hear about anymore - they carry pieces of the load so you don’t have to carry it all. You built something that gave them a place to work and grow. That matters more than you probably realize.

Another year - you made it. Through economic uncertainty, supply chain nightmares, staffing challenges, and whatever else 2025 threw at you. Your business is still standing. You’re still here.

You made it!

Here’s something I’ve learned: You can be grateful AND exhausted. You can love your business AND need a break. You can be proud of what you’ve built AND wish it were easier.

Those aren’t contradictions. That’s what owning a business actually looks like.

The holiday rush will pass. January will come - probably faster than you want. You’ll get your breath back. But right now, in the middle of the chaos, hold onto this: You are doing great!

“Be still, and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10

Here’s the thing about this verse: it wasn’t written for peaceful moments. Read the full chapter - earthquakes, nations in uproar, kingdoms falling, waters roaring. It’s written for chaos. For the exact kind of season you’re in right now.

And right there, in the middle of the noise, comes this command: Be still.

Just Be still.

For us in December, that sounds almost impossible. But stillness isn’t about stopping everything. It’s about remembering you’re not the one holding the universe together. The same God who’s sovereign over earthquakes and kingdoms? He’s sovereign over your Q4.

That doesn’t mean the work disappears. It means the weight shifts.

Taking the breath you’ve been postponing.

Remember: stillness isn’t about stopping everything. Sometimes it looks like pausing long enough to notice the people who made this year possible.

This week, try this exercise with me: Tell three people thank you. I’m sure you could think of more than three people 😊

Thank a team member who went above and beyond. Thank a long-time customer who’s stuck with you. Thank a vendor who makes your life easier. Or call your business partner and acknowledge what you’re building together.

No hidden agenda. Just because it’s true.

That’s your moment of stillness this week.

Have a blessed December!

Carmi

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