Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are.
I receive Shane Parrish’s Brain Food newsletter every Sunday. This week’s edition featured an episode of The Knowledge Project with James Clear — author of Atomic Habits — on how to build good habits and break bad ones.
One line stopped me mid-scroll:
“Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are.”
I couldn’t help but relate it back to my 27-year journey documenting procurement transformation.
For 27 years, I’ve been saying the same thing: assess organizational readiness before deploying technology.
That’s it. That’s the thesis.
The ecosystem kept inventing new waves — ERP, e-procurement, cloud, digital transformation, AI, and now “autonomous business.” Each one marketed as “this time it’s different.”
The failure rate never moved. 80% then. 80% now.
Maybe the obvious thing was obvious for a reason.
Five Lessons That Explain Why
Shane’s newsletter included five “Tiny Lessons” from the James Clear episode. Each one explains both why the ecosystem keeps failing — and why consistency eventually wins:
1. “You cannot outwork the person working on a better thing.”
The ecosystem outworks everyone — more features, more launches, more conferences, more content. But they’re working on the wrong thing.
You can’t outwork your way to success if you’re optimizing for technology adoption instead of organizational readiness. The person quietly working on the right thing will always win in the end.
2. “The cost of good habits is in the present. The cost of bad habits is in the future.”
Documenting patterns for 18 years when no one was listening — that cost was paid upfront. The cost of the ecosystem’s bad habit — skipping readiness assessment — gets paid by practitioners. Every failed implementation. Every parallel process. Every CPO whose credibility erodes.
The vendors and consultants got paid in the present. The practitioners pay in the future.
3. “Intensity makes for a good story. Consistency makes for good results.”
Intense product launches make great keynotes. “Autonomous Business” makes a compelling Gartner graphic. The 10 AI strategy reports Alex Barády curated make for a viral LinkedIn post.
But intensity doesn’t move the failure rate.
Consistency does. Eighteen years of documenting the same pattern. 3,000+ articles. The same thesis across five technology waves.
In 2007, my audience was 60% operational practitioners. In 2025, it’s 90% academics, C-Suite, and senior decision-makers.
The content didn’t change. The recognition did.
That’s consistency compounding.
4. “Don’t be the first to tell yourself no. Let the world tell you no first.”
I kept publishing when the audience was small. I kept documenting when no one cited the archives. I kept saying “readiness before technology” when the ecosystem was shouting “AI will change everything.”
The world didn’t tell me no. It just took 27 years to say yes.
Most practitioners tell themselves no before the world ever gets the chance. They accept the 80% failure rate as “just how it is.” They stop asking why the pattern persists.
Don’t be the first to tell yourself no.
5. “If you’re not outthinking them, you’re not outworking them.”
The ecosystem produces more content than I ever could. More reports. More quadrants. More podcasts. More conferences.
But volume isn’t thinking.
Alex Barády curated 10 AI strategy reports from OpenAI, Anthropic, McKinsey, Accenture, BCG, Bain, EY, and IBM. Not one of them assesses whether the organization is ready to absorb what they’re recommending.
That’s outworking without outthinking.
The question isn’t “what should we do?” The question is “are we ready to do it?”
If you’re not asking the second question, you’re not outthinking anyone — no matter how many reports you publish.
The Obvious Thing
Twenty-seven years. Five technology waves. One thesis: readiness before technology.
The ecosystem kept convincing itself it was smarter than the pattern. I didn’t. I just kept documenting.
“Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are.”
Maybe the obvious thing was obvious for a reason.
What’s your obvious thing — and how long have you been doing it?
Attribution
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Procurement Insights
The Obvious Thing: What 27 Years Taught Me About Success and Failure
Posted on January 4, 2026
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Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you’re smarter than you are.
I receive Shane Parrish’s Brain Food newsletter every Sunday. This week’s edition featured an episode of The Knowledge Project with James Clear — author of Atomic Habits — on how to build good habits and break bad ones.
One line stopped me mid-scroll:
I couldn’t help but relate it back to my 27-year journey documenting procurement transformation.
For 27 years, I’ve been saying the same thing: assess organizational readiness before deploying technology.
That’s it. That’s the thesis.
The ecosystem kept inventing new waves — ERP, e-procurement, cloud, digital transformation, AI, and now “autonomous business.” Each one marketed as “this time it’s different.”
The failure rate never moved. 80% then. 80% now.
Maybe the obvious thing was obvious for a reason.
Five Lessons That Explain Why
Shane’s newsletter included five “Tiny Lessons” from the James Clear episode. Each one explains both why the ecosystem keeps failing — and why consistency eventually wins:
1. “You cannot outwork the person working on a better thing.”
The ecosystem outworks everyone — more features, more launches, more conferences, more content. But they’re working on the wrong thing.
You can’t outwork your way to success if you’re optimizing for technology adoption instead of organizational readiness. The person quietly working on the right thing will always win in the end.
2. “The cost of good habits is in the present. The cost of bad habits is in the future.”
Documenting patterns for 18 years when no one was listening — that cost was paid upfront. The cost of the ecosystem’s bad habit — skipping readiness assessment — gets paid by practitioners. Every failed implementation. Every parallel process. Every CPO whose credibility erodes.
The vendors and consultants got paid in the present. The practitioners pay in the future.
3. “Intensity makes for a good story. Consistency makes for good results.”
Intense product launches make great keynotes. “Autonomous Business” makes a compelling Gartner graphic. The 10 AI strategy reports Alex Barády curated make for a viral LinkedIn post.
But intensity doesn’t move the failure rate.
Consistency does. Eighteen years of documenting the same pattern. 3,000+ articles. The same thesis across five technology waves.
In 2007, my audience was 60% operational practitioners. In 2025, it’s 90% academics, C-Suite, and senior decision-makers.
The content didn’t change. The recognition did.
That’s consistency compounding.
4. “Don’t be the first to tell yourself no. Let the world tell you no first.”
I kept publishing when the audience was small. I kept documenting when no one cited the archives. I kept saying “readiness before technology” when the ecosystem was shouting “AI will change everything.”
The world didn’t tell me no. It just took 27 years to say yes.
Most practitioners tell themselves no before the world ever gets the chance. They accept the 80% failure rate as “just how it is.” They stop asking why the pattern persists.
Don’t be the first to tell yourself no.
5. “If you’re not outthinking them, you’re not outworking them.”
The ecosystem produces more content than I ever could. More reports. More quadrants. More podcasts. More conferences.
But volume isn’t thinking.
Alex Barády curated 10 AI strategy reports from OpenAI, Anthropic, McKinsey, Accenture, BCG, Bain, EY, and IBM. Not one of them assesses whether the organization is ready to absorb what they’re recommending.
That’s outworking without outthinking.
The question isn’t “what should we do?” The question is “are we ready to do it?”
If you’re not asking the second question, you’re not outthinking anyone — no matter how many reports you publish.
The Obvious Thing
Twenty-seven years. Five technology waves. One thesis: readiness before technology.
The ecosystem kept convincing itself it was smarter than the pattern. I didn’t. I just kept documenting.
Maybe the obvious thing was obvious for a reason.
What’s your obvious thing — and how long have you been doing it?
Attribution
Related Posts:
-30-
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