Patterns

“I looked out the window at the Ferris wheel of the Great America amusement park revolving in the distance when I turned back to Gordon, and I asked, ‘If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?’ Gordon answered without hesitation, ‘He would get us out of memory chips.’ I stared at him, numb, then said, ‘Why shouldn’t you and I walk out the door, come back, and do it ourselves?'”

• Andy Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive

Perspectives

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

• Peter Drucker

"When I was writing 'Kitchen Confidential,' I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car."

• Anthony Bourdain

“Just live right in the middle of the flow of change, where there is nothing to hold on to. How do you do this? Just be present and devote yourself to doing something.”

• Dainin Katagiri

Analysis

It's a familiar problem. What you've been doing—and doing well—is no longer working. You're stuck, realizing that you need to change course but unsure of the direction. Andy Grove and Gordon Moore have a moment of insight so simple that it shocks both of them: “We should just stop what we've been doing—it's no longer working.”

Prior to this revelation, they had been stuck in a box. They wanted a better outcome, yet they were hesitant to let go of their old ways and means. They hadn't allowed themselves the freedom to look outside of that box, despite its obvious limitations.

Lessons like this are often dismissed or glossed over. They're too simple. The most obvious choices are often hiding in plain sight, and this can be deceptive. In hindsight, their move was so obvious that we assume we would have done the same thing. Be careful with this assumption. The sunk cost fallacy is real. We tend to seek out data that confirms our past decisions—and downplay anything that suggests we might be wrong.

You'll never find your blind spots if you keep looking in the same direction.

Insight

What does it mean to pivot, and how should we think about it?

To pivot is to move on. To realize that what got you here won't get you to where you want to go. It means ending relationships—with old ideas and old concepts. This is never easy, even when things aren't working out.

From a psychological perspective, we usually think about attachment in terms of interpersonal relationships. But attachment isn't limited to childhood experiences and interpersonal dynamics. It's an expansive and fundamental concept. We often struggle most with our attachment to ideas, concepts, and beliefs. We commit, and we dig in. Our opinions and viewpoints become internalized—an extension of who we are at a foundational level. Our identity is built upon our attachments. We're reluctant to change course once we've established a pattern.

Why? Because our minds seek consistency as an antidote to the inherent chaos and unpredictability of the world around us. When this internal sense of consistency is challenged, it results in cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is defined as:

“The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.”

This is a subtle concept, but it's powerful and insidious. You should be aware of it. It's always at play, influencing your behavior just outside the limits of your conscious awareness. At its core, it's a reflexive tendency to resist change. It's a bias that acts as a filter and a screen, ensuring that your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors conform to familiar patterns. This ensures consistency—which is safe. But it also ensures that change will come into your life infrequently or not at all.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. There is no reward without risk, and no growth without discomfort.

Mastery

A pivot requires a change in perspective.

How do we generate new perspective in a systematic way? Andy Grove devised a simple thought experiment. It's universally applicable, and you should use it liberally. Its power lies in its simplicity—and it works, if you can get out of your own way.

Ask yourself the same simple question: “If I brought in an objective, outside observer right now to analyze my situation and give me the truth and nothing but the truth—what would they say? What would they have me eliminate? What would they flag that I am avoiding?”

An important element of this exercise is that you generate feeling. This is true with any form of visualization. There needs to be an emotional connection with your imagined advisor. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to know them personally, but bringing them to mind should resonate with you.

The most important element is that you don't screen yourself. The intuitive answer usually comes immediately, but we often ignore it or suppress it. If you already have an issue in mind that you're struggling with, the answer may have surfaced while you were reading this. Write it down. Capture it. Be honest with yourself, and don't rationalize it away.

When we're stuck and things aren't working out, the answers we need usually aren't comfortable. Recognize that these feelings are transient and will evolve over time. What seems overwhelming at first eventually becomes the new normal.

Once you cross the bittersweet divide, there is a tremendous sense of liberation in moving on.