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This month, I did something I’ve been mentally preparing for: I dropped my one and only child off at college.

The moment was full of pride, excitement, and more than a few quiet tears. As we helped set up his dorm room and made our final Target run, I found myself reflecting on how this experience mirrors lessons I’ve learned, and sometimes relearned, in business.

Trust the Process

As a parent, you spend years investing in your child: teaching, guiding, preparing. For me, I didn’t get the full 18 years, as I adopted my son when he was 11, but there was a lot packed into nearly a decade. It is hard to step back, and trust they’re ready. It’s no different in business. Whether you’re launching a new product or program, promoting a team member, or entering a new market, you do everything you can to prepare and then at some point you let go. Leaders must move from doing to trusting.

Growth Happens in Discomfort

College is the beginning of a new identity for your child, just like any pivot or scale-up is for a business. Both involve risk, unfamiliarity, and the discomfort that comes with stretching boundaries. And yet, we know this is where growth happens. Businesses, like people, don’t grow when things are easy, they grow when challenged.

Foundations Matter

Every lesson, value, and habit we try to instill in our children forms a foundation they now carry with them. In business, your culture, mission, and early decisions become that foundation. You can’t predict every obstacle your team or company will face, but if the groundwork is solid, they’ll have what they need to adapt and thrive.

Celebrate the Milestones

I’ve come to realize in both parenting and business, we don’t pause often enough to celebrate wins. It’s important to take a moment to appreciate the journey, whether it’s your child starting their next chapter or your team achieving a major goal. Reflecting on progress can create momentum. Enjoy the small wins along the way! 

You’re Still Part of the Journey

Just because we step back doesn’t mean we step away. I’ll still be a call or text away for my son, and in business, great leaders know how to stay engaged without micromanaging. Your role evolves, but your presence still matters.

As we drove home, the empty seat in the car was a stark reminder of change but also growth. The same holds true in business: moments of letting go aren’t signs of loss. These are signs that something is working and that what you’ve built is strong enough to continue without your constant presence. 

And in both parenting and business, isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Now, excuse me while I go grab a Kleenex.

While felines have always had a prominent part in family life, and even history, domesticated cats as pets is steadily climbing. With increased cat ownership globally, especially among urban, single-person, and millennial households, the animal health industry must adapt rapidly to meet the needs of feline health.

1. More Feline-Specific R&D Funding
Cats have historically been underserved in pharmaceutical development. Many treatments are dog-adapted, not cat-designed. But cats have unique physiology, metabolism, and behavior that demand tailored approaches.

Industry Solution- As an industry, we need to allocate more resources for research and development within pharma and biotech to develop feline-specific therapies. There also needs to be more global collaboration and cross-border research on feline zoonoses and aging.

2. Veterinary Education Updates to Close the Cat Care Gap
Veterinarians often receive less training in feline-specific diseases, behavior, and handling—despite cats being the most common pet in many regions.

Industry Solution- We need to work collaboratively with veterinary schools and the AVMA to reform curriculum to embed feline medicine as a core and not a specialization. Encouraging veterinary schools to develop clinical rotation partnerships with cat-only clinics and providing certification and CE programs that are feline-only tracks will take the next generation of veterinarians to a better place for servicing felines. And, finally, we need to develop online learning for busy veterinarians and veterinary technicians focused on feline pain, stress, and subtle symptom detection. 

3. Policy and Regulatory Advocacy 
There are fewer drugs and diagnostics approved specifically for cats in part due to small market assumptions and lack of feline-specific studies.

Industry Solution- We need to work with leading public policy organizations to make feline health a priority. Engage with regulators, create feline-specific pathways and find ways to reduce trial costs for small-market species, like cats.

The surge in cat ownership is more than a trend, it’s a transformational opportunity. By shifting from a dog-first model to a species-specific innovation ecosystem, the animal health industry can improve outcomes, open new markets, and meet the evolving expectations of cat owners worldwide.

As a leader, watching someone on your team grow into their next opportunity can feel like a double-edged sword: pride in their progress paired with the sting of loss. You want to be the kind of leader who champions careers. However, when that growth means leaving the team, it can get complicated.

How do you strike the right balance? 

How do you mentor someone without micromanaging their path or worse, stalling it?

Here are a few tips for mentoring and encouraging upward or outward mobility, from someone who has moved for career advancements personally.

1. Normalize Career Growth — Even if It Means Leaving
If your team only hears praise for loyalty and longevity, they’ll feel torn when ambition pulls them elsewhere. Set a tone early that career progression is expected and supported both inside and outside your organization. Be focused on helping your team grow, even if one day that growth takes them beyond your team and organization.

When people know you care about them beyond their current role, they’re more likely to bring you into the conversation early, not at the resignation letter stage.

2. Shift From Ownership to Stewardship
It’s easy to feel possessive of top talent, especially if you’ve invested time and energy in their success. But strong leaders don’t own people, they steward their growth. Make sure you are not holding onto talent because they are essential, and you are uncomfortable with change. Be proud to see them thrive somewhere else.

3. Build Development into the Everyday
Don’t wait for someone to express a desire to leave to start talking about development. Regularly check in with team members on skills they want to develop, experiences they’re curious about, and roles they envision long-term. Regardless of if they stay, the investment pays off in motivation and a feeling that they matter to the team and organization.

4. Celebrate Wins with Grace
When someone lands a new opportunity, fight the urge to make it personal. Reinforce how proud you are of them, how they have earned the new opportunity and how grateful you are for everything they contributed to the team. That moment of grace will define how people remember your leadership.

5. Create a Legacy Culture
When people leave, help them shape their legacy. Have them document their knowledge, mentor others, or reflect on what they learned. Let them know their time mattered and contributions made a difference. Make sure the team hears you and sees you championing growth for those that stay and those that go. 

People don’t just talk about how you managed them, they talk about how you supported their next move. Be the kind of leader they thank in LinkedIn posts, job interviews, and years down the road. In the end, your legacy as a leader isn’t how many people stay under you, it’s how many grow because of you.

Securing large-scale projects in any industry is never a solo effort—it’s a team sport. As the saying goes, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” This rings especially true when the stakes are high. To win big, it takes collaboration across various conditions and stakeholders: state and local leadership, a pro-business environment, supportive communities, utility partners, a dynamic innovation ecosystem, and a highly skilled workforce.

While measurable business incentives—such as tax breaks, infrastructure support, and access to capital—are often top of mind when companies evaluate location options, it’s the intangible factors that make all the difference for long-term success. These are the elements that can’t easily be quantified but are critical to ensuring a project’s sustainability and growth over time.

One of the most significant intangibles is how well a project aligns with the region’s economic development strategy. A successful project isn’t about financial incentives alone. It’s about how it fits into a broader vision for the region’s growth and development. When regions invest strategically in industries, they create fertile ground for policy, innovation, workforce development, and the kind of collaborative ecosystem that drives sustained success.

In the case of the KC Animal Health Corridor, this kind of long-term thinking has been key to our rise as a global hub for animal health and bioscience over the last twenty years. The Corridor doesn’t attract companies simply because of its incentives—it draws them because of the strong partnerships, the supportive infrastructure, and the commitment to advancing the industry’s future. Over the last two decades, the Corridor has developed a unique ecosystem where innovation, collaboration, and workforce development thrive, fueling not only short-term wins but also the long-term growth of the animal health sector.

Ultimately, the success of large-scale projects depends on strong business incentives, a pro-business environment and a region that invests in its industries. Regions that align their economic strategy with emerging trends and foster an environment where collaboration and innovation can flourish will win. The Animal Health Corridor is a prime example of what’s possible when the right elements come together to build a sustainable, thriving industry.