reasons why something feels hard to do
You aren’t skilled at it yet.
You are appropriately skilled. You’re making the right move, but you don’t have enough force / resources behind it. (Seth Godin talks about this with a kindling metaphor - if you want a huge fire, you need more than some lil baby sticks. You can’t move the market with $100.)
You are fundamentally ill-suited for doing this thing. You are not a “this thing” person.
There isn’t a mature system surrounding and supporting this thing. You have to sketch or build at least a temporary version of that system so you have a chance to do the thing. (This is true for a lot of start ups, often ones that have landed on a particularly good idea).
There IS a mature system surrounding this thing. But it’s more like a thicket than a street grid. The rules and pathways are complex and forbidding to newcomers.
Teams and leaders can get stymied when they misidentify the reason a thing is hard. A strong leader can teach young or new members of the team to run this analysis more accurately.
Young or new people, especially the ones who aren’t arrogant, often run to item 3. Ironically, these humble people can be drawn to the most self-centered of the explanations. They aren’t yet students of the system that surrounds the work; their data is just what they do, what results they get, and how it all feels (to them). So the conclusion they draw when a thing is hard is that it’s because of something (immutable) about them. You know better. Teach them, show them.
-eric
