Who are the five people missing from your network that will take you beyond local limits?
That is the question we are answering today.
Leaders who want to extend beyond their current market or mandate often face a paradox: big ambition paired with a narrow network. As Jim Rohn famously said, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If those five reflect only local benchmarks or past success, blindspots grow, biases harden, and momentum stalls.
The Fast Five: Your Strategic Multipliers
I work with clients who go beyond the status quo by intentionally building their Fast Five - the five relationships that stretch your view, sharpen your decisions, and multiply results across borders.
They are not casual contacts, new LinkedIn connections, or business cards collected at networking events. Instead, they:
Expand your worldview through diverse expertise and geographies.
Challenge assumptions and expose blindspots.
Unlock in-market capital, talent, and intelligence.
Translate ambition into scalable action and influence.
Create sustained mutual value through ongoing engagement.
These are the five people most missing from your network, inbox, offline discussions, and phone calls right now.
Climbing the Ambition × Agency Ladder
Moving from Globally Absent to Globally Impactful is about vision and capacity - but more importantly, it is about who you are climbing with. Your Fast Five evolves along this journey:
Without an intentional, evolving Fast Five, you risk being stuck - ambition without agency or busy action without purpose.
Status Quo Network vs Fast Five Network
A familiar, comfortable network keeps you local. A Fast Five network takes you further - diverse, aligned, and designed to challenge blindspots while unlocking new opportunities. The difference between the two is the difference between staying limited and moving faster across borders.
A status quo network keeps you local or limited. A Fast Five network pulls you forward - beyond comfort zones, toward accelerated growth.
How to Build and Activate Your Fast Five
Spot the Gaps: Map where your current network falls short of your global goals.
Define the Profiles: Identify who belongs in your Fast Five for your current ladder stage.
Invite Authentically: Engage around shared vision and mutual value.
Keep Them Involved: Embed them in decisions, projects, and strategic planning.
Evolve Continuously: Refresh your Fast Five as you climb.
Outcomes Over Optics
Your Fast Five are not for show. They are the people who stretch you, challenge you, and open gates to the stage you want to lead on.
In 2025’s complex world, upgrading your network is a strategic advantage. The five people you choose to involve will shape how far and how fast you can go.
To go beyond the status quo and win differently, start with your Fast Five.
We go further, faster, together.
Who are the Fast Five that will get you further in the last quarter of 2025?
This Ladder Has an Expiry Date
You know you’re on the wrong ladder when progress feels real inside your organisation or industry, yet fragile or hollow when tested against the wider world.
Tell-tale signs include:
Blurred Lines, Misaligned Decisions
Leaders don’t make decisions alone. They sit in rooms with boards, executives, regulators, investors, customers, communities, and partners across sectors. At times, we may share the same table yet see the world - and our business within it - entirely differently.