Federico Thoughts

Banner owned by Federico Navarrete Leverage, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “the influence or power used to achieve a desired result.” Today the word is everywhere — and often empty. It’s sold as a shortcut, a trick, a way to “win faster.” For most of my life, I didn’t chase leverage. I didn’t even know it had a proper word until the late 2010s. I learned it under constant pressure, across four countries and two continents. And once you learn it that way, it’s hard to ignore. The last few years have been unusually volatile and difficult to predict. Trade tensions returned, conflicts multiplied, layoffs spread across sectors once considered stable, and artificial intelligence accelerated faster than most organizations could absorb. A few months ago, I published Why I Always Think in Systems and Incentives: My Two Cents . This text is a continuation of that line of thinking. Understanding systems and incentives explains why environments behave the way they do — but it doesn’t fully ex...

Systems and Incentives. Banner powered by vectorportal.com Some people think I’m too cold or too detached—like someone who moves through life without feelings. The truth is simpler: I never chose to think in systems. Life pushed me in that direction long before I even knew the term existed. One of my earliest memories goes back to when I was seven or eight, working in my family’s small shop. We had a regular customer—an honest, humble businessman, but also a heavy drinker. He always paid, never caused trouble, and worked harder than almost anyone I’ve met since. While many people today complain about 40-hour weeks, he was easily doing 80 or 100. His workshop was his entire world. Every few days he’d stop by around 6 or 8 p.m., exhausted but upbeat, and order 40 or 50 beers in one go. For a kid, it looked insane. But he never left drunk, never had a hangover, and would tell me stories about impossible clients, financial stress, and the constant fear of losing his business. He barely saw...