Elite CEOs and athletes share a belief.
Usman Shuja, CEO of Bluebeam, learned it long before the boardroom, representing the USA national cricket team and becoming one of the top wicket-takers in U.S. history.
Talking with him made me think about how differently pressure shows up across seasons of life.
In sports, the pressure is loud and public.
In leadership, it even heavier....Board expectations. Team decisions.
Real consequences.
For most of my career, I thought confidence was what carried leaders through those moments.
Loved how Usman reframed it for me:
Pressure is a privilege.
It’s PROOF that what you’re doing actually matters.
That belief was forged for him in a hostile away game in Nepal with 20,000 fans cheering against him and everything on the line.
They even rioted❗
Years later, he taps into that perspective everyday as CEO.
Leadership isn’t about avoiding pressure.
It’s about learning to INTERPRET IT differently than everyone else.
👉 Is pressure the cost of leadership or the reward?
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Connect with Usman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/usmanshuja/
Learn more about Bluebeam: https://www.bluebeam.com/resources/ebooks/aec-tech-outlook-2026)/
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