The Five Buckets You Fill Before Anything Works

This morning, during a run, I listened to an episode of The Diary of a CEO that introduced a simple idea I immediately wrote down afterwards.

The premise was straightforward:
Before anything meaningful works in business, you’re filling five buckets.

Not building.
Filling.

The buckets were:
Knowledge, Skills, Network, Resources, and Reputation.

And the more I thought about it, the more it explained patterns I’ve been observing for years — both in my own journey and in the founders I work with.

1. Knowledge comes first (even when it doesn’t feel productive)

If there’s one bucket I’ve always filled almost instinctively, it’s knowledge.

I’ve never been a purely linear learner.
A lot of what I know today didn’t come from structured paths, but from curiosity.

Reading things that weren’t immediately monetisable.
Testing tools before they became industry standards.
Learning across disciplines instead of staying in one lane.

At the time, it often didn’t feel efficient.
But knowledge compounds in ways that only become visible later.

And in hindsight, many of the “fast” decisions I can make today are only possible because that bucket was filled early.

2. Skills are where knowledge becomes leverage

Knowledge without skills is potential.
Skills are where things start becoming tangible.

For me, this meant years of doing the work hands-on.
Designing, building, iterating, refining.

Not outsourcing too early.
Not skipping the uncomfortable learning curves.

Because real confidence doesn’t come from knowing what works.
It comes from having done it enough times to recognise patterns.

That layer becomes especially valuable once you lead teams — because you’re no longer speaking theoretically. You’re speaking from experience!

3. Network changes everything (but slowly)

This is probably the most underestimated bucket.

Network isn’t built through sudden exposure.
It compounds quietly.

Through years of collaborations.
Through trust built in small moments.
Through showing up consistently when it’s not transactional.

Looking back, many of the most meaningful opportunities in my life didn’t come from visibility.
They came from proximity.

People who knew how I think.
People who had seen how I work.
People who trusted the process before the outcome was obvious.

That kind of network doesn’t scale fast — but it scales deep (and we love this!)

4. Resources create breathing room

This is the bucket founders often want to rush.

Resources aren’t just financial.
They’re structural.

Time.
Energy.
Financial stability.
Operational support.

What I’ve learned over time is that resources don’t just enable growth — they enable better decisions.

When you’re constantly operating from pressure, you optimise for survival…
When you have breathing room, you optimise for quality!

And once you understand that, the magic starts to happen. You start building systems that support your structure and that can handle any “earthquake”.

5. Reputation is the slowest — and most powerful — bucket

Reputation is the one you can’t accelerate on demand.

It’s built in layers:
Through consistency.
Through standards.
Through how you show up when things are difficult.

In my world, especially working with high-trust clients, reputation often travels ahead of you.

People don’t just buy output.
They buy pattern recognition.

They look for signals:
Do you finish what you start?
Do you hold the standard when things get complex?
Do people trust you in rooms you’re not in?

That bucket takes the longest to fill.
But once it does, it changes the trajectory of everything.

What this made me reflect on

What I found interesting about this framework is how grounding it is.

It shifts the focus away from:
launches
momentum
visibility

And back toward fundamentals.

It reframes growth as something quieter.
More structural.

Not:
“How do I move faster?”

But:
“Which bucket am I actually filling right now?”

Because most things that look like overnight success are usually just well-filled buckets becoming visible at the same time.

The thought I’m taking with me

I’ve only just started exploring this idea, but it already gave me something valuable:

A reminder that building isn’t always about acceleration.
Sometimes it’s about accumulation.

Quiet inputs that don’t look impressive in the moment — but compound into something undeniable over time.

And maybe that’s the real shift that happens as you grow as a founder.

You stop chasing moments.
And start respecting and seeing the buckets.

As usual, thank you for being here and taking the time to read through this post!

xx, Lisa