Christie Kaplan is not just a name you’ll find in leadership circles she’s a force shaping the very way founders think, build, and scale. As Dallas City Ambassador, part of the leadership team at Creative CEO, and a speaker at @ck.impact, Christie Kaplan has made it her mission to empower founders to rise above mediocrity. Her 12 years as a design leader haven’t just honed her craft they’ve sharpened her perspective on what it really takes to lead.
Christie Kaplan recently shared a thought-provoking post on LinkedIn, and it wasn’t your usual leadership fluff. It cut through the noise, offering a stark and simple truth: founders only win by being first, being best, or cheating. She immediately dismissed the third option, not with naive idealism, but with practical wisdom. “Cheating” might be a path some consider, but it’s never sustainable and Christie Kaplan makes it clear that anyone going down that road should be prepared for a wild ride full of legal consequences.
Which leaves us with the two real options: be first or be best. This isn’t theoretical for Christie Kaplan it’s the philosophy she lives by and instills in the communities she leads. Her words reflect a mindset forged in the high-stakes world of entrepreneurship, where strategy, timing, and bold execution define outcomes.
To be the first, Christie Kaplan says, is to embrace the exhilarating and risky terrain of innovation. You’re not just making a product you’re creating a new category. There’s no blueprint, no case study to follow. You lead with research, intuition, and a sense of urgency that borders on obsession. It’s not for the faint-hearted. But if you get it right, you redefine the market.
On the other hand, being the best is a different kind of challenge. Here, you already know the landscape. You’ve studied your competitors. You see the gaps in their offerings. Your mission, Christie Kaplan emphasizes, is to deliver excellence so compelling that customers forget everyone else. It’s not about reinventing the wheel it’s about making it so smooth, so fast, and so beautiful that no one wants to ride anything else.
What makes Christie Kaplan’s message especially powerful is her recognition of where most founders get stuck. They’re not first. They’re not best. They’re just there. Existing in the middle. Settling for “good enough” while hoping for great results. Christie Kaplan doesn’t sugarcoat this reality she calls it what it is: wishing, not building.
This hard truth challenges us to look inward. Are we playing to win, or are we just playing not to lose?
For Christie Kaplan, leadership is defined by clarity and courage. Her experience has shown her that pressure isn’t something to avoid it’s something to expect. Whether you’re navigating uncharted territory as a pioneer or climbing over others to reach the top, the stress, uncertainty, and demands are ever-present. And if you don’t feel the pressure, she warns, you’re probably not leading at all.
What stands out in Christie Kaplan’s philosophy is not just the insight, but the invitation. She’s not offering easy answers; she’s posing a vital question: Which will you choose? Will you be the one who dares to lead from the front, or the one who elevates the standard with unmatched excellence?
There is no in-between.
This mindset is why Christie Kaplan is more than a speaker or strategist she’s a beacon for founders who are tired of average. Through her platform at Creative CEO and her work empowering entrepreneurs at SDP, she offers not only perspective but practical empowerment. She knows what it’s like to build, to lead, to face pressure and she knows the reward that comes with choosing a path and walking it with conviction.
In an ecosystem flooded with noise, Christie Kaplan stands out for her clarity. Her message resonates because it’s real. No fluff, no flattery, no empty motivation just a challenge to step up, or step aside.
Christie Kaplan reminds us that every founder has a choice. You don’t have to be the loudest, the most followed, or the most funded. But you do have to choose to be first or be best and then back that choice with everything you’ve got.
In the end, Christie Kaplan isn’t offering a shortcut. She’s offering a standard. One that calls for boldness, self-awareness, and discipline. One that invites founders to drop the illusions, face the pressure, and decide once and for all who they really want to be.
And maybe that’s the real legacy Christie Kaplan is building: not just products or platforms, but people leaders who dare to be more than average.
