Nicola Kilner reflects on the corporate experience that prepared her for entrepreneurship, the multi-brand model behind DECIEM, and the intense culture that shaped its early years. She explains why startup teams need agility, adaptability, and a strong sense of belonging, while acknowledging the personal costs of an unhealthy lack of balance. As DECIEM scaled, she learned that kindness includes difficult performance decisions, that chaos does not work indefinitely, and that effective leadership requires recognizing what you are not good at and bringing in people with complementary strengths.