This is something different. This is the business school many of us wish we’d had when we started. Simple. Quick. Powerful. And, oh yeah…free.
Let’s be brutally honest (as we will attempt to be throughout), the business world definitely does not suffer from a lack of advice. It suffers from a gross abundance of it. Thousands of business books. Endless podcasts. Consultants, coaches, and influencers all promising your next breakthrough. We’re not going to promise that.
The problem is that the knowledge is scattered—buried in those books, hidden inside the minds of executives and their experiences, rarely organized in a way busy leaders can actually use. We have set out to solve that problem.
When you study great companies over decades and talk with the Owners and leaders of those companies, one thing becomes obvious: The fundamentals rarely change.
Write this down…Great businesses are built on clear principles, repeated consistently over time.
Every leader carries lessons they don’t realize are valuable. What’s second nature to you today was once hard-earned. And for someone else—someone facing a similar crossroads today —it might be the missing piece.
If you’ve learned something the hard way, don’t let it die on your desk. The insight you share might be the turning point someone else is waiting for.
Because the most successful business leaders understand —
Write this down…
There are only two types of best practices;
📌 those we learn from others, and
📌 those we learn the hard way.
From One Generation of Leadership to the Next.
“I’m too busy to read all of business books I’ve been recommended, and I don’t even know which ones are actually relevant to me.”
“I don’t have time to sort through all of the online advice, and most of it feels like some influencer just trying to sell me something.”
“My team is working hard, but I’m not sure we’re aligned. I feel like we’ve drifted away from the basics.”
“I wish I could sit down with someone who’s already built a company like this, but business coaching is not in my budget right now.”
“I wish someone had told me this earlier.”
You Are the Reason We Are Building This.
Instead of thousands of disconnected ideas, our signature program, The Weekly Edge, focuses strictly on timeless business Rules, delivered one week at a time.
📌 This is NOT “30 Days to Business Success”. This fifty-week program is intentionally and strategically designed to slow you down, focus your thinking and help you to create something significant.
Each Rule distills a proven principle from one of the greatest business books ever written and connects it with real-world insight from leaders who run companies in your community.
No gurus. No gimmicks. Just principles that hold up when real money, real employees, and real customers are involved.
15 Minutes. 1 Significant Edge.
Best of all…The Weekly Edge is FREE. FOREVER. Seriously. You do not need to enroll. You do not need to provide us your email. We’re not going to monitor your progress. We are not going to try and sell you something down the road. Use it to build your business and use it to build a significant life for yourself and your family. That’s it. Just show up and do the work.
However, because businesses aren’t built by simply reading books and studying rules, they’re built by discussing, testing and applying those rules, we’ve opened the Boardroom.
📌 This is where Presidents, CEOs and entrepreneurs contribute many of the hard-earned lessons that never make it into leadership books…
• what worked, until it didn’t
• what failed from the get-go
• what they would do differently
• and, what we hope you never repeat
Over time, each Rule becomes a living archive of executive insight. This is where experience accumulates. This is where the real education happens.
Where Business Leaders Bring the Rules to Life.
The Executives’ Institute isn’t being created by academics. It is being built from more than three decades of conversations with Founders, Presidents and CEOs across the United States.
Decision-makers who have made the mistakes and built their companies by learning the rules the hard way. This is the business school many of us wish we had earlier.
📌 10k Leaders is being built with one goal in mind: To bring 10,000 serious business leaders together around the same timeless principles. From startup founders to seasoned retirees, from solopreneurs to multi-division CEOs, bringing their perspectives to the table.
Write this down…Markets shift. Technology evolves. Headlines change. But discipline, sound judgment, stewardship, and leadership endure.
Curriculum Built by Owners and Operators.
Rule No. 1 — Solve a Real Problem, is open for you to begin today. Read it. Take the Action Step. Review the related book, The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries.
Rule No. 1 is where every enduring business begins: Identify the problem your customers can’t ignore —and prove that your solution matters. If you can’t do that, nothing else you build will matter either.
If Rule No. 1 sharpens your thinking, the other 49 Rules will too.
If you’re like me, The Weekly Edge is the kind of simple, disciplined reminder that keeps your business (and your wandering business mind) from drifting off course.
📌 Start today. Start anytime. Study at your own pace. Repeat when necessary.
Start Your Weekly Edge (Free. Forever.)
January 1, 2026
The Executives Institute is being deliberately, slowly built over the course of this year, with the intention of being consistently used, not just passively consumed. Use the questions, insights and action steps tied to each Rule to examine how your company is actually operating this week and next.
📌 Where are you drifting or guessing?
📌 Where are you or your team lacking clarity or confidence?
Don’t just collect ideas. Apply the right principles with discipline. And, if you’ve learned something the hard way, share it. Business leaders from different industries contribute lessons learned, insights, and perspectives tied to each of the Rules. Maybe the next person avoids the same mistake because you took the time to document it.
As Members of The Executives Institute continue to contribute, refine, and challenge the Rules and these ideas, the list becomes more valuable—not because it’s complete, but because it never will be. If you believe this kind of practical leadership education is of value, consider becoming a contributor, either financially, through your insights, or both.
Thank you for being here.
Sincerely, Kurt connect with me on LinkedIn
Timeless Business Principles. Collective Modern Insight.
Below is The Executives Institute Standard.
It’s kind of long, but I think it’s kind of cool. Not to mention, relatively important and, I believe, very unique in today’s market. We are doing this differently, I assure you.
Contribute with confidence.
Just as important as what we offer is what we refuse to become.
Standards require boundaries. These are ours.
📌 We Stay Out of Your Inbox
We will not email you, unless you ask.
We will never add you to a mailing list, without your direct permission.
We will never sell, share, or monetize your information.
We will never upsell you additional products.
We will never call you, mail you, or contact you individually for any reason, unless you specifically request information from us first.
Your attention is yours.
Your information is not an asset for us to leverage.
No emails. No data sales. No exceptions.
📌 We Will Not Chase You
We will not notify you when new content is posted.
We will not follow up to see if you “completed” anything.
Leaders manage their own calendars, commitments, and priorities.
We assume you already do.
📌 We Will Not Compete for Your Attention
We will not flood your feed.
We will not interrupt your day.
We will not fight algorithms for clicks.
We will not manufacture urgency.
The Weekly Edge appears in just 2 places, once a week. This site and our LinkedIn Page. Those who value it will find it.
📌 We Will Not Gamify Discipline
We will not use streaks, badges, points, or progress bars.
We will not turn serious work into entertainment.
We will not reward participation for its own sake.
Discipline is not built through incentives.
It is built through repetition and responsibility.
📌 We Will Not Simplify What Should Be Thought Through
We will not reduce leadership to slogans.
We will not package complexity into motivational soundbites.
We will not pretend hard problems have easy answers.
The Rules are reminders — nothing more.
The work happens in reflection and application.
📌 We Will Not Sell Novelty
We will not chase trends.
We will not rebrand old ideas as new breakthroughs.
We will not promise transformation in 30 days.
We will not pretend fundamentals need reinvention.
These principles have endured for decades — often centuries.
Their value comes from practice, not presentation.
📌 We Will Not Hold Your Hand
We will not guide you step by step.
We will not tell you when to engage.
We will not tell you what to think.
We will not lower the standard to increase participation.
Leadership requires initiative.
This is where it starts.
📌 We Will Not Build for Everyone
This Institute is not for casual interest.
It is not for passive consumption.
It is not for those looking to be motivated.
It is for leaders willing to take responsibility for their own development.
📌 One Expectation
One Rule is published and ready to stude each Monday morning.
No announcements.
No reminders.
No follow-ups.
If you show up, the material will be there.
If you don’t, that’s feedback — not failure.
Great leaders don’t want to be chased.
They want to be challenged.
Lead yourself first.
📌 A Closing Word
The Executives’ Institute respects leaders who respect themselves.
We do not remove friction. We do not replace responsibility with convenience.
Timeless principles exist to be applied — without reminders, incentives, or supervision.
Show up. Do the work. That’s it.
— The Executives Institute