What Did We Miss?

I’ve always seen the world a little differently—through a lens not just of what is, but of what’s been missed. The missed opportunity. The missed insight. The missed reinvention hiding in plain sight.

What gets me isn't what people can’t do—it’s what we almost did. The brilliance we brushed up against but never explored. The strategy we drafted but didn’t refine. The idea we skimmed the surface of before retreating to safety. That quiet pattern of nearly—but not quite—reaching the fullness of what was possible.

And here’s the thing: this isn’t a matter of intelligence. I don’t doubt the intellect of others. In fact, I find most people I encounter are remarkably smart, capable, and well-intentioned. But intelligence alone doesn’t yield excellence. That requires a different lens. One that is neither purely strategic nor purely emotional, but grounded in something far more elusive: the courage to question what we think we know—and the willingness to go further than what is simply enough.

See, humans have a tendency toward sufficiency. We learn a method, a system, a set of principles. We practice them until we get good. And once we get good, we stick with it. We institutionalize it. We teach it. We defend it. We stop asking if it’s still the best way—because it works. But working isn’t the same as thriving. Getting by isn’t the same as building something exceptional.

Too often, we don’t dive deep because we’ve already achieved acceptable.
Too often, we don’t question our systems because we’re emotionally invested in the ones we’ve inherited.
Too often, we confuse effort with reinvention—when reinvention requires not just energy, but imagination.

That’s why I keep coming back to a simple but profound question: What did we miss?

When Vin and I started our agency, we didn’t come from the industry. We had no formal training in how to run a business. No case studies, no insider networks, no ingrained habits. That could’ve been a weakness. But for us, it was the exact opposite. It was our freedom.

We weren’t weighed down by inherited dogma. We didn’t copy and paste someone else’s blueprint. Instead, we looked at what we wanted to exist—what we believed could be done better—and we built toward that. Not toward someone else’s model. Ours.

We questioned everything because we had nothing to protect. We invented not from cynicism, but from possibility. It was a kind of blind optimism—yes—but it was also deeply strategic. We didn’t assume we knew better than others. We just believed there had to be a better way. And we were willing to do the hard work to find it.

That’s the part people miss when they talk about innovation. They think it’s a flash of brilliance. But most of the time, it’s slow. It’s patient. It’s effort without ego. It’s doing the same thing six different ways until one of them clicks. It’s being willing to look foolish, or inefficient, or naïve—until the new thing becomes the better thing.

The truth is, most people aren’t lazy. But we are creatures of habit. And once we find a way that works, we stop looking for the ways that could work better. We stay where it’s safe. And in doing so, we stop short of what’s possible.

That’s not a moral failure. It’s a human one.

But it’s also one we can correct.

So I’ll ask you again:
What did you miss?
What idea did you discard because it was inconvenient?
What truth did you skim over because it required more work than the one you settled for?
What better future did you ignore because the present was already “fine”?

I’m not asking anyone to tear down the world and start from scratch. But I am asking us to get uncomfortable. To go back to first principles. To sit with the strategy one layer deeper. To stop asking, Does this work? and start asking, Is this right?Is this durable? Is this the best version we’re capable of?

Because that’s where the breakthroughs live.

They live in the corners we forgot to look in.
They live in the questions we were too proud to ask.
They live just beyond the line we stopped at when the job was “done.”

What did we miss?

Maybe everything.

And maybe, just maybe—that’s the invitation we’ve been waiting for.

---

If today’s episode stirred something in you—if it made you look twice at something you’ve accepted as “working”—then here’s your call to action: go back. Ask again. Question deeper. See what lives just past the edge of good enough.

And if this reflection helped you think differently, take a second to follow or subscribe on Substack, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I share episodes like this every weekday—thoughtful, real, and built to move you forward.

Let’s not settle for a life that almost got it right. Let’s build what we’re actually capable of.

I’ll be back tomorrow.

Until then—go one layer deeper. You might just find the breakthrough.