- The New Ambition | Success Without Burnout
- Posts
- The Gift Money Can't Buy
The Gift Money Can't Buy
No exaggeration: It's rare. It's magical. And it will change your life.
Jen Phillips
December 23, 2025
Hi it's Jen,
I've had three entrepreneurial stints in my career. And in the corporate world, I climbed the ladder to rare air. In both arenas, here’s what I know:
It's the communities we’re a part of that expand our surface luck area.
In my early corporate leadership, I had a problem to solve and couldn't find the right unicorn to fix it. I found the perfect person at a user group meeting. I may have offered him a job that day.
Years later, I read a book that shifted my thinking on customer experience. I connected with the author, who became my mentor. That ended up transforming my life completely by bringing me into the analyst community.
When I say I’m a big believer in the power of community, I mean it to my DNA.
Community is fuel for contextually relevant connection at a time when isolation and authentic connection is sorely needed and really hard to find.
In today's issue:
The default of ‘it’s all good’
The magic expanding gift of ‘I’ve got you’
Read time: 6 minutes
Default
Cut to the Holiday scene when I tell you we're in the middle of a loneliness epidemic. And you're like, "Thanks, sunshine."
But it’s really important to talk about it. Today.
(so I’m going there.)
For Founders:
76% report feeling lonely (7x the workplace average)
93% show mental health strain—anxiety, sleep problems, depression
Only 43% feel supported by an active community
So nearly all of us are struggling, but almost none of us have infrastructure in place to help. Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
 | For Women in Tech:
We don’t leave because we can't tech with the best of them. We leave because we're under-supported, overwhelmed, and increasingly isolated. |
Real talk: Corporate America is a system optimized for isolation.
Success = more responsibility = less time for connection
Vulnerability = weakness = career risk
Asking for help = a fear we’ll be perceived as incompetent
Peer relationships = more competitive than collaborative
But Harvard's 80-year study on adult development found that the quality of our relationships is a better predictor of health and happiness than cholesterol levels, social class, or IQ.
And what’s a better gift than happiness? Or health?
Ambition
In entrepreneurial spaces, the community rules bend toward helping each other and are mutually beneficial.
And I believe we can all learn from the people and places making that magic happen daily.
Knowledge Without the Gatekeeping
Curious about how someone built their business? Ask them. They'll tell you. Often in excruciating (and uber-valuable) detail.
YouTube University is the real deal. Every day, people share what works, what doesn't, and what they'd do differently for just about every entrepreneurial scenario.
Want to join an accelerator of people just like you, learning from the best in the world? You can do it today. And benefit from it immediately.
Connection is a Gift
 | And in this world, "You should meet [person]" is a mutually beneficial gift, not a power play. In fact, I've built a broader, more diverse, and more helpful network during this entrepreneurial stint than I did in 10+ years at Salesforce. Not because I'm better at networking now. But because connecting others is considered good citizenship, and people are genuinely excited to do it. |
Vulnerability Builds Trust
Admitting to a struggle isn't career-limiting in the entrepreneur universe. In fact, it can be a catalyst for exponential growth.
Just this week, I reached out to a member of my founder cohort who has just landed some (very) big wins. Asked for her help in understanding what may be adding friction to my own growth.
She gave me more actionable value in 30 minutes than I could have even imagined. It’s a scenario I see play out weekly. On Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, Circle, text, and plain ol’ fashioned phone conversations.
The gift of community isn't something you can buy.
It's something we build, show up for, and offer to others. Especially in hard seasons.
The reciprocating gift is this: "I've got you." And then following through. It’s being a good citizen.
And having a community that does, in fact, ‘got you’ when you need it most is the new ambition we should all embrace.
It’s the perfect present.
Quick favor: forward this to someone who quietly holds community together. Making the workplace a healthier place is going to take all of us.
GO | DO
Estimated time: 20 - 30 minutes, at your pace | Estimated energy: medium
This week, three opportunities to give and receive the gift of community
 | Thank You, Thank You, Thank You (10 minutes)Send a message of appreciation this week to three people who've supported you this year. No networking. Not transactional. Just: "I appreciate you. Thank you for [specific thing]." As a favorite mentor once told me, “thank you costs us nothing and means everything”. |
 | Citizenship Quality Check (10 minutes)Ask yourself:
Define one specific opportunity to be a better citizen in your communities next year. |
 | Aaaaaaand Action! (10 minutes)Make a list of 3 people you know who are starting something new, navigating a transition, or out of work. Make one meaningful connection for each in the upcoming week. Building this muscle is one of the most fun ways to create win-win-win moments that matter to many. |
Why these are the realest gifts you’ll give or get
When leaders invest in community, we build the infrastructure that makes sustainable success possible. And break through the isolation that is our epidemic du jour.
Community is the gift we give that immediately gets returned.
🎁 And that’s exactly what we deserve.
Get In There
📊 Subscribe to The New Ambition for instant access to the complete subscriber vault: healthy leadership tools, templates, and frameworks updated weekly with resources shaped by subscriber feedback.
🔴 Lessons from the longest study on happiness (TED) (+28M views, 12 minutes) For your drive over the river and through the woods. The longest running study on what makes a “good life”.
Your turn: Which gift will you be giving? |
And to you, dear reader…thank you. Your responses, your feedback, and your sharing this newsletter with others. It means everything to me. Helping make the workplace a better place is my WHY. And it’s going to take all of us.
Getting a little better every week. And then advocating for the systemic change we all deserve.