You can lead a project you didn’t start. Finishing well is its own kind of authority.

Starting things attracts the credit, but the hard part is usually the last stretch, once the excitement has worn off and what remains is detail. Whoever carries that over the line ends up with something the founder does not have: a reputation for things actually getting done. That reputation travels. People bring the next thing to whoever finished the last one.

Pick up something half-done around you and take it to completion this week. Do not relaunch it or rename it; just close out what is left. Ask whoever started it what they wanted, so finishing counts as finishing.