it really is that simple

the biggest lie i've been told is that it isn't simple. repeated over and over again. by professors, by “advisors,” by people with fancy titles who need you to believe the world is complicated so they can charge you to navigate it.

but that's how they get you. that's how you're trapped.

i was going back and forth with my digital buddy @zekramu on twitter - who i've never met in person but met on twitter - and it triggered something i've been thinking about for a while. the conversation hit a nerve because it's something i've experienced firsthand across every industry i've touched.

the entire software, startup, and biotech world runs on making simple things sound complicated. that's not a bug. it's the business model. it's how people justify their roles, their rates, and their gatekeeping. wrap a straightforward concept in enough jargon and suddenly you need a consultant, a specialist, and a $400/hr attorney to do something a 19 year old dropout could figure out in an afternoon.

i've sat in rooms with people who have decades of experience and PhDs on their wall who could not explain what they do in plain english. not because it's actually complex. because their entire value proposition depends on you thinking it is. the moment you realize it's simple, they become unnecessary. and they know that.

so they add layers. more process. more frameworks. more acronyms. more meetings about meetings. more decks about the deck. and you sit there nodding along thinking you must be the dumb one because everyone else seems to get it. but here's the thing - they don't get it either. they're just better at pretending.

the truth is - it is simple. all of it.

you do the thing. you figure it out as you go. you make mistakes. you fix them. and in the end you realize it really was that simple. and that it always was.

i've raised money. it's simple - find someone with capital who believes in what you're building and convince them. i've built products. it's simple - figure out what people need and give it to them. i've failed at startups. that was simple too - i either ran out of money or built something nobody wanted.

none of it required a 47-slide deck to understand. none of it required an MBA. the pattern is always the same. the people who do the thing realize it's simple. the people who talk about the thing need it to be complicated.

the gatekeepers will hate this take. they'll say i'm oversimplifying. that i don't understand the nuance. that there are complexities i'm not accounting for. and sure, there's nuance in everything. but nuance is not the same as complexity. you can understand the nuance and still acknowledge that the core of it is simple.

stop letting people convince you that you need permission, credentials, or their approval to go do the thing. you don't. you never did.

it's simple. it always was.