Inventory, Aunts, and AI

Most innovation efforts fail before they begin. Really. Dead in the water. But no one realizes it yet. There are studies, that go back decades. A story for another day.

A substantial part of this is not stopping to collect thoughts, take inventory, and confirm alignment. That is what today’s story is about.

I learned a lesson in the military— the hard way— by failing an exam. Luckily, the consequences weren’t too dire. Even so, I remember the lesson and use it almost daily.

During basic training, we had to demonstrate how to splint a broken leg. The first step? Take inventory. Lay out your cord and your sticks. Make sure you’ve got what you need before you take action.

Since several of us were testing simultaneously, we each had to call out “Inventory!” so the examiner knew we’d done it. I forgot to yell and failed the exam. I didn’t even get to make my splint, as a quiet tap on the shoulder told me I was done.

I was angry.

Fewer than a half-dozen pieces! Obviously, I could do the inventory in my head. If I were missing parts, I would have spoken up. But it was my own fault; I knew the rules.

That lesson stuck with me.

Not how to splint, but the idea that before you do the work, you must see and confirm what you intend to do and ensure you are prepared. I didn’t fail the exam because I couldn’t tie a splint. I failed because I didn’t declare my readiness, the indicator that I had a clear intent and had what I needed to succeed.

Too often in tech, we forget this. A new hype cycle arrives — blockchain, AI, web3, digital twins, pick your poison — and we scramble to act. No one wants to be caught flat-footed or fall behind.

Urgency becomes a reflex. And strategy gets replaced by the desire for speed.

Fast-forward a few years to when I was in college. While at a family event, my aunt told me, “I wish I were like you and understood how things work. How can I learn more about computers?”

Some of you might wonder why this moment stuck with me.

It wasn’t the compliment or the phrasing. It was what she didn’t say. My aunt is brilliant with horses, but she isn’t ‘technical’ at all. She wasn’t asking me for a course or a manual or even a book to read. She could have done any of those things.

I can’t read thoughts, but I heard her message as:

Technology makes me uncomfortable, and I want that feeling to disappear. I’m willing to put effort in, but I don’t know where to begin. Help me get started.

My impression is that this is where many of us are with AI today.

We know things are changing. We hear the hype. We don’t want to feel uncomfortable. But we also don’t know how to begin.

You have most likely played with LLMs at home. Perhaps used them at work. But when it comes to real innovation — creating a new product or service, for example, you might be wondering where to start.

And, all too frequently, we don’t have confidence that investing effort will have payoffs that will get us where we want to go. It feels like a risky investment.

This is critical — we’re not shying away from the effort — but we’ve had our fingers burned with technology before. It was likely expensive. Yet, despite our previous experiences, we want to believe that this time will be different.

Successful innovation isn’t about reacting faster. It isn’t about trying what everyone else is trying. It is about finding what you and your business need. It’s about identifying what matters, preparing, and then focusing on it until you finish. It starts with inventory—assessing where you are and where you want to go. I wrote a book to make this easier.

For that moment when you feel like you should take action, and want to have greater confidence that you can get where you need to go.

We’ve create a tool to help with this. You can find it here.

As it turned out, I was just as interested in learning to ride horses as my aunt was in learning about computers. She gave me a few lessons. But the time and investment required were more than I was able to commit.