We already know how to do something brand-new when we absolutely have to.
A diagnosis drops, and suddenly you’re speaking in lab values and treatment protocols with the confidence of a resident on rounds. A home renovation starts, and within a week you’re tossing around R-values, joists, permits, and punch lists like you’ve been on a construction crew for years.
None of us planned to learn that fast. We didn’t even believe we could—until the stakes rose and the clock started. And we didn’t just learn; we got good. We found workarounds, asked sharper questions than the “experts,” and solved real problems under real pressure.
That’s the pattern: urgency unlocks fluency.
Entrepreneurs do the same thing—by choice.
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A founder with zero apparel background opens a clothing line and, in months, can diagram the supply chain from fiber to finished goods.
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A baker turns a weekend cookie hustle into a company and gets conversant in shelf stability, labeling laws, and industrial food production—fast.
Give it enough weeks and you’ll hear them say the classic line to a friend:
“I never expected to know so much about ___.”
Here’s the point most people miss: if you think you “don’t have what it takes” to do something wildly new, you’re wrong. You already have the muscle. You’ve used it in a crisis. The only real decision is whether you’ll learn to swim because someone shoved you into the pool, or because you decided to jump.
Let’s make jumping the smarter move.