When a good wave appears —an opportunity, a strong period, a project— the real dilemma is not only whether to get on it, but what to do once you're already riding.
There are different ways of facing it: three possible paths, a trap, and an ideal.
1. Catching the wave The beginning. It takes ambition, decisiveness, and a touch of courage. Not everyone tries, but many manage. Starting is not the hardest part.
2. Staying on it Here is where the real challenge begins. Not falling into inertia, not getting too comfortable. Staying on top demands attention, reinvention, and a delicate balance: not wearing yourself out, but not falling asleep either. This is what separates those who just arrive from those who stand out.
3. Leaving it to go for the next one Closing a wave before it ends may seem like the boldest move, but it's not always so. Sometimes it is: letting go of something at its best moment, when it's strongest, is one of the hardest and bravest decisions to make. Other times, though, it's more of a pause: resting, reflecting, catching your breath. Some even disguise it as a big leap, when in reality they're simply looking for a break. That's why this path is not so clear: it can be the highest bet, or just a necessary pause.
4. The ideal: knowing when to leave What good surfers do. They don't wait for the wave to die, nor do they jump too early. They calculate, almost instinctively, how much strength is left and exit at the right moment. In real life you can't rely only on feelings, because the risk is that the wave drops you when it has already lost all its power. That's the hard part: anticipating, planning, and betting on how much runway is left before what you're doing loses its momentum.
The trap: drifting along The only mistake is not choosing. Trusting the wave to hold on its own. That's when the current takes you out without you realizing it.
CrossFit and How to Keep Improving
In CrossFit, it's very clear what happens when you slow down. Just a vacation or a slightly longer rest is enough to notice how quickly something slips away: a skill that took months, the endurance for certain workouts, the strength for a specific lift. The setback is visible and almost immediate, more so than in many other sports.
At the same time, the body also needs those pauses. Often that small setback is what allows you to come back stronger, because you've recovered, balanced loads, and prepared the ground for the next leap. The key is to find the right point: how much to rest to lose as little as possible, while gaining as much as possible when you return.
That balance is what makes the difference. Too much rest pulls you away from the level you had; too little leads to burnout and injury. The challenge is to surf that dynamic: to accept that setbacks will be visible, but also to use them as part of the cycle of improvement.
Improving also means surrounding yourself with the right people. Finding, in each workout, those who make things hard for you and force you to work on your weaknesses. One day it will be gymnastics, another strength, another conditioning. That's a long wave: keep polishing weaknesses, keep consistency, keep growing from there.
And then there's the most radical option: changing context. Joining a bigger team, training twice a day, following a competition program. That comes with risk: more demand, more wear, more pressure. It's not a light step, nor obvious, nor guaranteed success. You can overshoot, lose the pulse of your own body, of your real capacities, of your margin and ability to improve.
My Wave at Work
With AI it's the same. I'm building systems that already take over part of what I used to do. Staying on top is possible, but not forever. Jumping to a bigger wave is attractive, but risky. The question is: when is the right moment to move? I don't want the wave to end and leave me out; nor do I want to jump too early. So I try to anticipate how much runway what I'm doing today still has, and plan the jump before it loses its strength.
The Wave in Companies
The best companies are those that manage to always have a wave that fits the stage each person is in. When someone has mastered one, or starts to lose power in the previous one, another appears that pushes them just enough to keep growing.
It's extremely difficult, but the companies that succeed are the ones that truly retain talent. Because it's not just about stability or benefits, but about keeping people in that point where they feel they still have a wave to surf.
Beyond the Wave
What I share here is not a universal truth, but my way of seeing it. For me, the goal is not a fixed destination: not winning a competition, not reaching a number, not landing at a specific company. The goal is to always be on a wave that pushes you.
A wave that makes it hard, that forces you to improve, to bring out your best, to stay at your limit. That state is, for me, the true destination: to stay as long as possible in that productive tension where you're growing and performing at your best.
And that, for me, is equilibrium. That's the place where I feel comfortable, and where I think many people feel comfortable too: in a demanding environment that challenges you and allows you to perform. It's like the constant movement often linked to health: movement is health. Here the movement is to keep going, like a tractor that never stops, with consistency, solidity, and challenges.
Because in the end, once you start mastering something, the difficulty drops and the effort required too. To keep growing, the level of demand has to rise along with your own improvement. That incentive is what keeps the process alive: raising the challenge at the pace that you also rise.