Nobody Is Coming To Save You In 2026
What I am building in 2026
Good morning,
I want to close 2025 with something I learned but never talked about.
A friend of mine used to work at a mission in Geneva. For years, that friend was the one sending draft texts back to capital, asking for instructions.
Last year they got rotated home.
A few weeks ago, they sent me a WhatsApp message.
A draft resolution had landed on their desk. The negotiation wasn’t really about Indigenous Peoples. But there were references to us. Several of them.
And now my friend was the one positioned to provide instructions.
“FYI,” they wrote. “Let me know if you have any comments.”
The door was there. So I walked through it.
I went back to the text. Not scanning. Reading. Slow enough to hear the subtext.
And that’s when I saw it.
A few lines that looked harmless if you read fast. But at the UN, harmless language is how you get boxed in later.
Because once it’s in the draft, it starts traveling. It gets repeated. It gets normalized. Then one day someone cites it like it was always true.
I remember thinking, okay, who is handling this.
Who is tracking the changes. Who is calling it out. Who is making sure Indigenous Peoples don’t get boxed into someone else’s definition of reality.
Then I realized something that sounds obvious, but still hits like cold water.
Nobody.
Not the secretariat. Not the friendly delegation. Not the NGO that tweets the loudest. Not the legal expert you hope will show up in your inbox with a perfect paragraph and a perfect strategy.
Nobody was coming to save us.
The Trap Nobody Warns You About
Let me tell you what I was actually looking at in that draft.
The trick is never “we deny Indigenous Peoples.” That’s too obvious now. That triggers resistance.
The modern trick is softer.
A slight redefinition. A small condition. A polite limitation.
An “as appropriate.” An “as recognized.” An “in accordance with national circumstances.” An “as relevant.”
And the most strategic trick of all is when the text uses words that sound like they’re describing us, but they’re actually putting us inside someone else’s category.
I need you to read that again.
Words that sound like they’re describing us, but they’re actually putting us inside someone else’s category.
That’s how rights get diluted without anyone having to fight you in public.
A single clause can turn a right into an invitation. A single clause can turn a Peoples into stakeholders. A single clause can turn consent into consultation. A single clause can turn an obligation into an encouragement.
And once that clause is adopted, you’ll spend years trying to undo it.
Years.
While everyone around you says, “But it’s already agreed language.”
Agreed how.
Agreed by who.
Agreed when nobody was watching.
When Panic Forced Me To Move
Here’s the thing though.
I wasn’t always the person who could respond to that WhatsApp message.
15+ years ago, if that text had landed on my desk, I would have looked around for the playbook.
Where is the memo for this. Who’s is the person I can call. What is the correct intervention. What is the magic sentence that makes States back down.
I spent years waiting for someone to tell me what to do. I would look for the senior expert, the experienced leader, the person who had been doing this longer. I googled for tips, cheats, permission to move forward.
I was a totally passive participant.
The kind of person who shows up, delivers a statement, and hopes the system bends. A sponge waiting to absorb information, but without the first inclination toward action.
I was waiting to be taught instead of teaching myself.
But the UN doesn’t give you that playbook.
Diplomacy rewards the people who can move without permission.
So I made a choice. If I was going to survive in this system, I had to learn faster than my fear.
What I Started Doing Instead
I would pull up the latest draft and the previous version and compare them line by line.
I would search for the phrase in old decisions and meeting reports to see where it came from and who liked using it.
I would ask two people who live in procedure one specific question each. Not “what should we do.” I would ask “Here’s my idea for this, thoughts?”
Was it perfect. No.
Did it work. Enough.
Enough to slow the momentum. Enough to force a conversation. Enough to make it harder for problematic language to slide through without cost.
To realize I’m the kind of person who figures things out changed everything for me.
It became the foundation for how I operate nowadays.
I stopped thinking of myself as someone who participates.
I started thinking of myself as someone who figures it out.
And the more I taught myself, the more I realized what I was capable of, without needing anyone else’s guidance or approval.
So when my friend’s message arrived a few weeks ago, I knew what to do.
I pulled up the draft. Ran the comparison. Searched the phrase history. Identified the trap.
Then I drafted three sentences. Not a speech.
Sent them to my leadership, got approval and then sent it back.
Was it perfect. No.
Did it work. Enough.
What Made The Difference
Here’s the part I didn’t tell you yet.
That WhatsApp message didn’t come out of nowhere.
That friend remembered me because we had worked a corridor together three years ago. We had shared information when it mattered. We had built trust when there was nothing to trade.
That’s the network.
Not a list of contacts. Not a LinkedIn connection.
A relationship where someone thinks of you when a document lands on their desk that mentions your people.
You can’t build that network overnight. But you can start building it now.
And you can’t maintain that network if you’re not the kind of person who can move when the message arrives.
The identity and the network feed each other.
You become someone who figures things out, and people start sending you the drafts. People send you the drafts, and you get more practice figuring things out.
Before You Go
I see people get this wrong all the time: They keep waiting for better advice when what they actually need is to become the kind of person who figures things out.
The Trap: Waiting for the expert, the playbook, the perfect framework that tells you exactly what to do.
The Fix: Realizing your situation is too specific for someone else’s opinion. You’re going to have to figure it out yourself anyway. So start now.
Seriously. You don’t need better advice. You need to become the kind of person who figures things out, fast, under pressure.
And you need a network that sends you the WhatsApp message when it matters.
That’s what I’m building here in 2026.
Not a deconstruction of decisions. A space where we become that kind of person together. Where we figure it out together. Where we build the network together.
Because nobody is coming to save us.
But we’re not alone either.
Reply and tell me what you’re trying to figure out right now. I can’t write back to every response, but I read everything.
That’s all for this year.
See you in 2026.