Dr. Chris DeRienzo
What if the most transformative leadership trait wasn’t charisma, brilliance, or strategy — but perseverance?
Dad. Husband. Physician. Author. Mediocre Triathlete.
Everyone applauds at the starting line and the finish line. I like to focus on the miles in between, where applause fades, fatigue sets in, and real leadership happens. I explored these ideas in my first book Tiny Medicine. Now I write about them in The Perseverance Playbook, a weekly LinkedIn newsletter on perseverance, purpose, and what it takes to keep going when nobody’s watching.
Recent Editions of The Perseverance Playbook
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One More
What Desmond Doss teaches us about knowing who you are before the test arrives.
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The Bark, the Roots, and the Lightning
A thousand-year-old redwood becomes the frame for understanding how leaders should balance speed with depth in the age of AI.
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The Rust is the Receipt
A rusted shovel becomes a meditation on dependability, multigenerational transmission, and the difference between being optimized for one thing and being reliable across many.
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The Seventh Call
Angela Duckworth’s grit research meets a chaotic travel day with his son John, and the simple act of making one more phone call becomes a parable about persistence.
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Esse Quam Videri
Originally published January 12, 2026 in The Perseverance Playbook on LinkedIn
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Hold On
Why we endure, and who learns from watching.