21 April 2026 · Nick Thorpe · 1 min read
Why the Hardest Thing in Business Right Now Is Also the Most Overlooked.
The hardest thing in business right now is not marketing or hiring. It is holding your standards when everything pulls at them.
BLUF (bottom line up front)
New data this year puts one in four UK business leaders on a direct path to burnout. The cause is rarely effort; it is doing too much of the wrong work for too long while nothing moves. If that feels familiar, the fix starts with looking at the problem differently.
You Might Not Be Stuck. You Might Just Busy Going Nowhere.
New data out this year puts 1 in 4 UK business leaders on a direct path to burnout. Not through laziness. Not through lack of effort. Through doing too much of the wrong things for too long and wondering why nothing is moving.
If that feels close to home, you are not alone and you are not behind. But you probably need to look at things differently.
Nick Thorpe
16 years a British Army officer, then a decade building his own companies. Coaches business owners on the CoreOS framework. The story.