One of the ideas I keep returning to while writing The Builders is that the mythology of the lone genius is deeply incomplete. The most enduring Builders are rarely isolated visionaries — they are people capable of building teams that challenge them, ground them in reality, and ultimately make the work stronger.
In this Builder Brief, I reflect on lessons from Jon Levy’s Team Intelligence, alongside my own experiences building GreenWood Investors and learning — often painfully — how difficult collaboration can be for highly independent personalities. From ego and emotional safety to truth-telling, shared missions, and the psychology of high-performing teams, this essay explores why even the strongest founders eventually need others to help transform vision into reality.