If you asked me how 2025 felt, it felt like a sprint that turned into a marathon.
With tomorrow being Christmas Eve, we are finally entering that brief, sacred window where the noise quiets down. It is the one time of year when, if we are disciplined enough, we can step off the hamster wheel.
I ran a little research project recently and asked a couple of peers and professionals to describe 2025 in a single word. The answers were incredibly consistent.
"Insightful. Busy. Fast."
And looking back at what I have been writing about for the last 12 months, that sentiment tracks perfectly. We have spent the year obsessed with speed, efficiency, and transformation.
The Topics That Defined Our Year
If you look at the themes we have covered together in this newsletter, they were all about shifting gears: - Commercial Mindset: We discussed how Customer Success needs to stop being a cost centre and start owning a commercial number.
- The Fractional Shift: We analysed the CEO’s take on flexible work and why the "Fractional Leader" is becoming a critical asset.
- Leadership & AI: We talked endlessly about how to integrate AI without losing the human element of leadership.
- Strategic Execution: We broke down how to stop being a "firefighter" and how to build a book of business in 90 days.
- Psychology & Frameworks: We dove into the mental models required to survive and thrive in high-pressure SaaS environments.
It was a year of "doing." It was a year of pushing for a reset in how we operate.
But as I sit here now, winding down, I realise that while I was writing about agility and commercial speed, my biggest lesson of 2025 was actually the exact opposite.
The Lesson We Didn't See Coming: Things Take Time
If I had to distil what I really learned this year, it is this: Things take time.
This sounds simple, almost counterintuitive to the "move fast and break things" mantra of tech. But think about the friction we have all felt this year.
Often, we try to rush things. We rush to make investors happy. We rush to hit the quarterly forecast. We rush the scaling phase because the spreadsheet says we should be at £10M ARR by Q4.
And what happens? We hit a wall. We force growth that isn't there, and then we have to stop the scaling phase entirely because we aren't reaching the numbers we want. We end up moving slower because we tried to move too fast.
I think what we will discover in 2026 is a move toward sustainable growth.
For us personally, and for our businesses, we need to accept that not everything can be sped up. Relationships take time. Trust takes time. deeply understanding a customer’s problem takes time.
To put this "slow down" philosophy into practice, I’m spending this time in the South of France.
It is the perfect setting to rethink. I can be close to the sea, but also have long, extended hikes in the mountains. And yes, there is a lot of rain here too (I’m realistic about that), but it is always great to experience 10 degrees more warmth than in London.
Being here, away from the Slack notifications and the LinkedIn feed, reinforces the lesson. The mountains don't rush. The sea doesn't rush. They just are.
Reframing AI for 2026
This brings me to a thought on Artificial Intelligence. We have spent 2025 treating AI as a turbo-button—a way to serve time, to produce more content, more emails, more code in less time.
But I believe the true value of AI isn't to make us run faster on the hamster wheel. AI is there to give us time back.
If we use it correctly, it should buy us the space to go deeper. To be more reflective. To think about the pace we rushed through this world and ask: Did we actually connect with human beings?
That is the shift I want to take into the new year. Using technology not to speed up the noise, but to clear the space for the things that actually matter.
A Final Note of Gratitude
On a side note, I am incredibly proud and want to send a huge, big thank you to you all.
I was humbled to reach 10,000 followers on LinkedIn recently.
Whether you have been a client of The CSAcademy, a long-time reader, or someone who just started following my thoughts, thank you.
Thank you for your trust, thank you for sticking with me, and thank you for listening and reading my thoughts.
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas or holiday time.
Do yourself a favour: Stop the scaling. Stop the rushing. Take the time you need.
I’m looking forward to connecting with a lot of new people in 2026.
Have a wonderful time.
Thomas | 