An awkward phase is not a verdict: how great ideas with a promise die in business or when attempting change of career.

New shoes.

That’s what a new career move, new life stage, corporate innovation will feel like. Promising, a little shiny - and stiff. Meanwhile, the old shoes feel like “you.” Soft. Familiar. Easy to slip back into.

On the Change Wired podcast, Alex Osterwalder and I were talking about business innovation and why so many good ideas die early.

"They don’t create the ecosystem for the innovation to survive”

New things don’t win on potential; they win when "the soil, sunlight, and water are there".

Same in life.

We drop the seed of reinvention into the dry soil of our old life and then blame the seed when it doesn’t sprout.

In business, you never design in a vacuum - you design in a context and need to shape that environment on purpose to support the promising seeds.

We do this all the time, we quit too early, we don't set up our new seeds of reinvention to flourish:

  • You try a new career path and you’re not instantly great. Feedback isn’t as sweet as it used to be. So you retreat to your “old tricks” to feel better about yourself for the moment.

  • You start a new fitness plan and feel like a beginner again. Awkward, sore, annoyed. You go back to the routine that stopped giving you results and growth years ago.

  • You join a new circle of friends to match who you’re becoming. It doesn’t fit your calendar, your old habits, your identity - not yet. You feel like fish out of water. So you tell yourself it’s “not me.”

None of that is a verdict. Awkward is just a phase.

Voltaire had a simpler take on it too: “we must cultivate our garden.” Don’t wait for a miracle harvest; do the work that makes growth succeed.

Give your new thing the ecosystem it needs.

Instead of asking “Is this working?” too soon, ask: “Have I built the ecosystem that would let this work?”

Old shoes feel like “you” because they’ve been shaped by miles. New shoes become “you” the same way. Walk in them. Break them in. Give them a fair chance to survive.

Over to you dear reader, pick one new thing you’re tempted to quit. Build the ecosystem to support it - like you mean it to succeed. Commit to 30-90 days at least.