Be a David in the time of Goliaths
When I wrote about taking advantage of volatility two weeks ago, I did not imagine just how quickly the roller coaster would take off. It feels like 2026 might be a year unlike any we have lived through. It is usually a fool’s errand to predict what your business will look like five years down the road, but right now it is hard to imagine what the landscape will look like even a month out.
Uncertainty does something strange to otherwise rational people. Customers hesitate. Vendors tighten terms. Good employees start scanning the horizon. Leaders who are usually decisive begin to second guess themselves because every decision feels like it carries twice the usual risk. Everything has an asterisk attached to it.
America’s small businesses are not built to withstand extended uncertainty. Most of us operate on thin margins and limited slack. We are built for motion, not for whiplash. That is exactly why leaders need to do something that will feel counterintuitive.
Now is the time to go all in on lean, flexible, easy to pivot strategies. Lean does not mean cheap. It means less waste and faster feedback. It means fewer bets that require you to be right six months from now, and more bets that let you learn what is true in the next few weeks. Flexibility does not mean indecision. It means building your work so it can bend without breaking.
If you have projects that you have allocated six months to, break them into smaller pieces that still produce something usable. Not “progress,” something real. A process that reduces errors. A trimmed offering that is easier for customers to say yes to right now. If a project cannot produce a tangible improvement in thirty days, it is probably too big for this moment, or too vague, or both.
This is also the moment to check on the relationships that usually sit quietly in the background. The vendor who always delivers. The referral partner you have not talked to in months. The long term customer who never complains but might be quietly rethinking spending. Do not wait until you need a favor to remember the relationship exists. A simple call that says, “How are you doing, what are you seeing, and how can we stay ahead of this together?” will do more for your resilience than another late night of spreadsheet work.
Most importantly, the communities you exist in need to be shored up and affirmed. When times get uncertain, it is tempting to narrow your focus until all you can see is your own ledger. I understand that instinct. But small business depends on trust, reputation, and customers believing you will still be there next month. In an environment like this, community is not a soft value. It is a hard asset.
The future will require leaders who lead with vision, but now more than ever, leaders also need compassion and a focus on the whole community, not just their own walls. Compassion is not charity. It is clarity about what people can actually carry right now. It is choosing fewer priorities instead of pretending you can do everything. It is taking care of the relationships that will outlast whatever this year brings.
As we all tighten our belts, it is tempting to circle the wagons. The problem is that circling the wagons also blocks your view. The only way through a season like this is together. We come out stronger if we lean on each other for ideas, help each other adapt, and create new pathways forward. Along with this will come new markets, new partnerships, and new visions for what life can look like.
There will be companies large enough to weather this storm with little change, but this newsletter is not for them. Their playbook is built on scale and buffers. Yours is built on speed, trust, and the ability to make decisions without asking ten people for permission. Make sure you are not looking at Goliath to learn how to be David.
If you are feeling the pressure right now, you are not alone. The goal is not to predict the future. The goal is to build a business that can respond to it. Shorten the distance between decision and feedback. Turn long projects into small wins. Strengthen the relationships that make you resilient. Invest in your community, because your community is what will carry you through.
- Dylan