On Constraint

You create your own constraints. You are your own bottleneck. Your limiting beliefs, your idiosyncrasies, your lack of self-confidence.

The word constraint keeps cropping up in the human-AI discussion. Usually framed as if humans are now the bottleneck. Haven’t they always been?

I suspect technology doesn’t create new constraints. It amplifies the ones we already live with.

The constraint I found

I trend towards building, and sub-consciously de-prioritise sales. Not because I don’t enjoy it. More the perfectionism trap: everything needs to be just right before making the ask. In reality, you’re never ready.

Reid Hoffman said it well: if you’re not embarrassed by the first version, you’ve launched too late.

My wife asked me over the weekend how many companies I’d pitched to. Less than ten real service calls in two weeks. In old thinking, two weeks is nothing. Now it feels like a lifetime. The speed of iteration is unreal. But business fundamentals don’t change. That’s the core of leanpreneurism.

I am my own bottleneck.

That chat was the reset. The day I finished writing this article, I pitched three more companies. Two progressed, one maybe. Good conversion. But the real constraint surfaced: I’m not in front of enough people. I’m refining the pitch for my closest network, not the masses.

I need to do the reps.

Constraints can stack

I’m facing two layers here. First, scale the offer. Second, validate which offer converts. These stack. Product-pitch validation compounds the distribution problem.

But we overcomplicate these things.

Look at the food industry in the North East of England. Entrepreneurs bring London food concepts north. They spend a day or two researching at Borough Market. They take what works and spin it up locally. Simple. Art is imitation. Unless you’re building Terafabs, we’re all repackaging the same fundamentals. The magic is in how you deliver it.

The leverage is always you

Be a few steps ahead of others. Figure something out before everyone else, then keep moving. Help those lagging behind. If you’re in a trending sector, lean into the novelty. Associating yourself with emerging trends has a multiplier effect.

The constraints probably aren’t as severe as you think. You’re limited only by your ambition, which is directly proportional to the constraints you place on yourself.

Same applies to the human-AI bridge. Where are you getting out of your own way this week?