Change Is Hard, Speed Is Critical
When I moved to Miami about three years ago for a job, I had no connections, no network, and it was still the tail end of Covid. I took a leap of faith, relocating here with great hope that the startup I joined would soar. It didn’t, and soon I found myself needing to move on. Finding a new role in a new city, and, in many ways, a new country, felt daunting, so I decided to create something of my own instead.
The American dream, freedom, opportunity, autonomy, has always inspired me, perhaps shaped by childhood evenings watching ’80s American movies and my formative high-school years spent in Ohio. Yet stepping into entrepreneurship alone in a new country felt equally exhilarating and isolating. It still does, but in different ways now.
Fast-forward, and I’ve advised or operated in startups stretching from Singapore and Korea to Europe and the U.S. Some of these ventures soared, others sputtered, and one painfully transitioned from ambitious startup to diluted corporate project. Each experience taught me valuable lessons, not only about business but also about people and myself.
My biggest realization: people rarely change.
Early signals of resistance, confusion, or disorganization almost always persist. Sure, exceptions exist, but they’re rare. As an operator or investor, it’s tempting to believe you can turn situations around, coaching founders or teams to break old habits. But human behavior is stubbornly persistent, especially under stress. Stress and uncertainty don’t just highlight existing behaviors, they amplify them. Early signals of
resistance, slow execution, and inconsistent follow-through almost always become entrenched patterns.
I’ve learned this firsthand, repeatedly. A recent venture I deeply believed in was continuously hampered by these stubborn patterns ,delayed decisions, lack of urgency, and organizational inertia. Despite countless hours spent in strategy sessions, coaching conversations, and direct interventions, the team kept defaulting to comfort zones, steadily eroding their potential. Deep down, I sensed this outcome from the start but didn’t want to believe it. Admitting this hurt deeply. It felt like personal failure: failure to help, failure to impact positively. But reflecting now, I see that perhaps the trajectory was always set, and I was merely part of a learning journey.
In contrast, another startup I’ve helped lead recently took off impressively. Here, the team embraced curiosity, experimentation, and rapid execution. Within just a few months, we built fast, tested boldly, and expanded globally through significant strategic and operational risks. The difference wasn’t the technology, the product, or even the market, it was entirely mindset. Their openness, their eagerness to learn and
willingness to test new things rapidly made all the difference. This reinforced my belief that how people do anything is truly how they do everything.
The central lesson, distilled across these experiences, is clear to me now: speed wins. The primary cause of transformation failure isn’t strategy or technology, it’s human resistance to change. Humans don’t easily shift their patterns; change is neurologically demanding. Our brains naturally prefer comfort, safety, and efficiency. True transformation asks us to spend cognitive energy we’d prefer to conserve.
Yet, ironically, the solution isn’t careful, methodical planning,it’s momentum. Taking action, even imperfect action, creates energy. Doing something, even when unsure, breaks inertia. Momentum brings new insights, new vantage points, and opportunities you’d never find standing still. Writing this article was my own small act of momentum, a way to move forward when I felt stuck.
Reflecting deeper, I now realize something fundamental about myself: I’m most energized at the frontier,exploring possibilities in business, people, technology, and transformation. To me, transformation isn’t about meticulous planning. It’s about boldly testing ideas, iterating rapidly, and learning from real-world feedback. It’s not easy, rarely is, but perhaps easy shouldn’t be the goal anyway. Growth often comes from discomfort.
I once read, “pain plus reflection equals growth.” This journey embodies exactly that. It hasn’t always been comfortable, but perhaps that’s precisely why it’s so valuable. The future belongs to the curious, those unafraid to experiment, fail quickly, and iterate relentlessly. The world is shifting rapidly beneath our feet. If we want to thrive, we must move just as swiftly.
Transformation isn’t just a business strategy, it’s a deeply personal commitment to curiosity, courage, and continuous growth. That’s the future I’m excited to build, alongside great, open-minded people.
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