I watched footage of Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket explode on launch and it got me thinking about something far more personal: who actually belongs in your ship. In this episode, I break down the rocket booster principle and why holding on to the wrong people past their purpose is exactly what sends you crashing back to Earth. This is not about cutting people off carelessly. It is about being honest with yourself about roles, energy, and who is genuinely on your mission. The people in your past and present who believed in you are counting on you to reach orbit.

Key Takeaways

Not everyone who is a good person deserves a seat in your future. People have roles, and those roles have seasons.
The hardest part of any launch is escaping gravity. The fuel that gets you off the ground is not always what carries you into orbit.
Identify who is in the ship with you versus who is a rocket booster. Both matter, but they require different levels of your energy.
Some people are not trying to fly anywhere. They just want to burn your fuel. Removing them is not cruelty, it is survival.
Everyone who believed in you at any stage of your journey is banking on you to keep going. You owe it to them to reach your level.

Action Steps

Write down the names of two or three people who are genuinely in the ship with you and intentionally invest more energy into those relationships this week.
Identify one person in your life who consistently drains your energy without contributing to your mission and begin reducing how much fuel you pour into that dynamic.
Reflect on a past relationship or friendship that faded and reframe it as a rocket booster moment. They did their job. Honor that by continuing to fly.

Notable Quote Once those silos have outlived their purpose, they become a liability. And if you hang on to them out of gratitude, the whole thing falls back to Earth.