From Impossible to Possible
"That's impossible." I heard it from advisors, investors, even my own team. Building what we wanted to build in the timeline we had wasn't feasible. The math didn't work.
I fucked up by believing them. For six months, I accepted the "impossible" narrative. I made excuses. I adjusted expectations. I prepared everyone for a more "realistic" timeline.
The Turning Point
Then a competitor announced they'd shipped the exact feature we'd deemed impossible. In half the time. With a smaller team.
It wasn't impossible. We'd just convinced ourselves it was.
What Changed
I called an all-hands meeting. We threw out our "realistic" plan. We started fresh with one question: "If we had to ship this in 6 weeks, what would we do differently?"
Everything changed:
- We cut features we'd assumed were "necessary"
- We simplified architecture we'd overcomplicated
- We stopped having meetings about having meetings
- We eliminated every non-essential process
- We worked backward from the deadline, not forward from assumptions
We shipped in 7 weeks.
What I Learned
"Impossible" is usually just "we haven't figured out how yet." The biggest barriers aren't technical - they're psychological.
Now when someone tells me something is impossible, I ask:
- "What if we had to do it anyway?"
- "What assumptions are we making?"
- "What could we eliminate?"
- "Who has done something similar?"
- "What's the simplest version that could work?"
Usually, "impossible" becomes "difficult but doable" within about 10 minutes of honest analysis.
Key Takeaway: Challenge every "impossible." Most limitations are self-imposed. Start with the constraint (deadline, budget, resources) and work backward, questioning every assumption along the way.