Four Forebears: forebearers of wisdom
A Council for Leaders
At the Edge of
Consequence
We exist for the moment where capability is no longer the problem, but judgment, perspective, and timing determine everything.
Hero: Legend-to-Legend Leadership Support
At this stage, our clients are not "emerging leaders." They are the central character in a story that already carries real revenue, real responsibility, and real consequence. Four Forebears exists as legend-to-legend leadership support: a council of four senior operators who see the whole board, speak in the language of owners, and stand behind the leader's authority rather than in front of it. The business remains theirs. The decisions remain theirs. We ensure they are made with the level of judgment the moment demands.
The Quadrinity in One Glance
Polar Bear
The Architect of Clarity
"This is the world you are actually in."
Black Bear
Integrator of Identity
"This is who you truly are in that world."
Spirit Bear
Story Systems Architect
"This is how your story moves through the world."
Grizzly Bear
Market Force
"This is the path that honors all of that and still wins."
The Financial Case
For a $5–15M company, the financial case for a council is straightforward.
Advisory Boards Drive Growth
Longitudinal research on advisory boards for small and mid-sized enterprises shows that companies with a formal advisory board grew sales 67% in the three years after creating the board versus 23% in the three years prior.
Over a decade, firms with advisory boards posted 24% higher average annual sales and 18% higher productivity than comparable firms without them.
Executive Coaching ROI
Executive-level judgment work follows a similar pattern: a MetrixGlobal study on executive coaching reported a 788% ROI when productivity and retention gains were included.
Organizations saw material improvements at individual, team, and organizational performance levels.
In parallel, human-capital research estimates the cost of a bad hire at up to 30% of first-year salary for general roles and up to 50% for managers. Studies of failed executive hires place the total financial impact in the range of $2–10 million per failure.
Against that backdrop, a four-person decision council priced in the low six figures annually is not a discretionary expense; it functions as structured risk management at the exact point where decisions begin to carry seven- and eight-figure consequences.
Richard Kielbon
Polar Bear
The Architect of Clarity
The Polar Bear gives the leader a world they can finally think in.
Reduces chaos to first principles, structures, and non-negotiables.
Maps the true terrain: constraints, leverage points, sequence, and load-bearing decisions.
Removes ambiguity so strategy stops being guesswork and becomes design.
The Experience
"Stepping onto solid ice after years of fog — everything sharpens, everything slows down, everything makes sense."
Erik Forrester
Black Bear
The Integrator of Identity & Behavior
The Black Bear reveals who the leader really is in motion — and what that means for everyone around them.
Surfaces actual patterns and confronts the leader with reality.
Integrates identity, embodiment, and relational dynamics into a coherent way of leading.
Aligns daily behavior with the story they claim to be living.
The Experience
"Being precisely seen — and finally having a way of leading that integrates their team, their health, and their own sense of self."
Morris Grand
Spirit Bear
The Story Systems Architect
The Spirit Bear turns a leader's legend into a living signal the world can actually encounter.
Designs how their story travels: content architecture, social presence, and organic reach.
Reads real-time audience response and platform behavior.
Builds AI-enabled systems and custom agents that carry their voice, values, and myth.
The Experience
"Their 'big story' finally getting wired into reality as a durable, adaptive presence."
Donald Stojack
Grizzly Bear
The Market Force & Orchestrator
The Grizzly Bear turns clarity, identity, and story into motion that can win in the real market.
Designs the path: offers, positioning, moves, and protections that respect actual conditions.
Orchestrates resources, timing, and territory so the strategy survives contact.
Converts legend into leverage — new revenue, stronger relationships, cleaner deal flow.
The Experience
"The strategy finally has teeth — a machine that can actually move markets."
Dangers
Every credible path has dangers. We name them in advance.
For leaders at the $5–15M stage, the primary risks around a council are predictable:
Waiting for crisis
Calling a council only after damage is visible, instead of when early signals of Silent Drift first appear.
Seeking affirmation, not truth
Using the council to confirm a preferred decision rather than to surface unseen constraints and second-order consequences.
Fragmented questions
Bringing isolated issues ('marketing,' 'people,' 'offer') instead of the integrated landscape they belong to—guaranteeing partial answers and repeated friction.
Outsourcing responsibility
Treating the council as a substitute for leadership, instead of a sounding board that sharpens the leader's own judgment.
Underutilizing the work
Leaving decision maps, risk ledgers, and agreed guardrails unused once the immediate pressure subsides.
Our engagements are designed specifically to counter these risks: we work with the whole terrain, insist on clear ownership of decisions, and structure follow-through so the council's value is measured in avoided mistakes, cleaner moves, and preserved momentum—not in meetings.
I. Who We Are
Four Forebears is a council.
We exist for a very specific moment in a leader's journey — the point where capability is no longer the problem, but judgment, perspective, and timing determine everything that comes next.
We restore leadership.
II. The Enemy
The enemy is Silent Drift.
- / Decisions that feel heavier than they should
- / Progress that requires more effort for less return
- / Advisors optimizing parts while the whole drifts
- / Leaders carrying more alone than they realize
We exist to interrupt Silent Drift before it becomes regret at scale.
III. Our Purpose
We restore judgment.
We protect what works.
We help leaders reclaim the hero they already are.
Case Study
$10M Case Study
LEGENDS Chapter 7
Why a Council Is Clear ROI
The rational question for a $5–15M owner is not whether a council is interesting, but whether it is economically defensible.
Advisory structures materially outperform “going it alone.”
A national study of small and medium-sized enterprises found that only 6% had an advisory board, yet 86% of those leaders reported the board had an important impact on business success. Companies that instituted an advisory board saw average sales growth of 67% in the following three years, compared to 23% in the three years prior, and productivity growth roughly doubled. Over a ten-year period, firms with advisory boards posted 24% higher average annual sales and 18% higher productivity than comparable firms without boards.
Judgment-focused interventions show exceptional returns.
Executive coaching—one-on-one advisory support at the leadership level—has been evaluated with rigorous ROI studies. A MetrixGlobal analysis, summarized by American University, found a 788% return on investment when productivity and retention were included, with measured gains of 70% in individual performance, 50% in team performance, and 48% in organizational performance. A council model concentrates that kind of leverage on the few decisions that define the trajectory of the company.
The cost of getting senior decisions wrong is non-trivial and compounding.
SHRM and U.S. Department of Labor estimates place the cost of a bad hire at up to 30% of first-year salary for typical roles and up to 50% for managerial roles. At the executive level, the numbers escalate quickly: a study of approximately 150 Chief Human Resources Officers found that 45% estimated the direct financial cost of a failed external executive hire at $2–5 million, with another 15% placing it between $5–10 million. When broader operational and strategic impacts are included, Harvard Business Review reporting cited in the same analysis notes that cumulative costs can reach up to ten times the executive’s annual salary.
Decision quality is the leverage point in the middle market.
Middle-market firms ($10M–$1B in revenue) are repeatedly identified as a primary engine of economic growth and employment, carrying outsized impact relative to their visibility. For owners in the $5–15M band moving into that terrain, each major decision—leadership, capital allocation, acquisitions, product focus, market positioning—has disproportionate downside if mis-sequenced or misjudged.
For an owner in this band, the fully loaded cost of a council engagement is typically lower than:
- One failed executive hire
- One mis-timed or mis-structured market move
- One year of compounded drift in a core line of business
The ROI logic is direct: if a structured council prevents even a single major misstep of that magnitude, the engagement has already paid for itself. The practical question is therefore not, “Can we afford a council?” but, “What is the actual cost of continuing to make $5–15M decisions without a disciplined, external council of judgment around the table?”
The Forebears
Richard Kielbon
Architect & Design Thinker
Richard is an architect of nearly fifty years with a deep understanding of business creativity, design thinking, and product design. He helps serious business owners connect with the purposes and aspirations of their customers, grounded in the belief that you have to create the future.
Erik Forrester
Next Step Strategist
A former percussionist who taught at major music schools, Erik now helps people add a lane to transport them on their most inspiring journeys. He works with individuals and teams to connect challenging life events to their next best steps, transforming old blocks into positive, sustainable, lifelong benefits.
Morris Grand
Digital Entrepreneur & Content Strategist
Founder of CreateGrowProfit, Morris specializes in content marketing for coaches and consultants. His strategy is simple: Create content, Grow your email list, and Profit. He helps digital entrepreneurs build systems that attract high-ticket clients through organic content and strategic positioning.
Donald Stojack
Business Strategist
Donald brings the kind of clarity that only comes from experience. As a strategist and trusted guide to top performers, he helps ethical businesses create better business—quicker, faster, easier. He is a pattern-seer and story-tracker who helps you maximize momentum by leveraging new income verticals.
Engagement
Model & Fees
This is judgment-level work. If the fee feels high, the client is outside our market.
Initial Council Session
$7,500 – $15,000
Single Intensive
Deep diagnostic + perspective restoration.
Quarterly Council Advisory
$25,000 – $50,000
Per Quarter
Ongoing guidance through consequential decisions.
Most Common
Annual Council Retainer
$100k – $200k+
Annually
Trusted perspective throughout the year, depending on scope and access.
Ready to Restore Judgment?
The cost of silence is compounding. The time to act is now.
Talk With Donald