A guy walks into a statistics class late.
That sounds like either the beginning of a bad math joke or a grad student nightmare.
It’s actually a true story. Graduate student George Dantzig arrived late to a class taught by statistician Jerzy Neyman. He saw two equations on the board, assumed they were homework problems, copied them down, and solved them.
Turns out they were statistical problems that were famous for never having been solved, and were generally considered impossible to solve. Dantzig, who later became a Stanford professor, didn’t know that at the time; he wasn’t limited by the belief that the problems were impossible
Impossible Comes From Different Places
Sometimes people don’t know what is considered impossible, and simply step beyond the limiting beliefs. Like Dantzig unknowingly did.
Other times, people know very well what has been declared impossible and decide conventional wisdom may be wrong or no longer true. They think “what if…” They choose to believe in possibility. They bravely defy conventional wisdom.
That kind of courage matters enormously in leadership. And can be life-saving.
The Amare Leadership Lab is a small, trusted circle for leaders — anyone in a position of meaningful influence who wants to bring out the best in themselves and the people around them. The Lab is a place to challenge and support each other honestly, grow alongside thoughtful peers, and become more courageous and capable together. Learn more at amareleadership.com/amare-leadership-lab or reach out directly to Moshe at moshe@amareleadership.com .
Pancreatic Cancer and the Impossible Greasy Ball
For decades, researchers described KRAS — a mutation tied to most pancreatic cancers — as essentially untreatable because the protein was considered too smooth – like a greasy ball – for drugs to effectively attach to and block. Most researchers moved on, and some leading experts considered continuing research efforts to be lunacy.
But a few scientists, including Kevan Shokat and Greg Verdine, kept pushing anyway, refusing to accept that decades of failure meant the problem could never be solved. This year, their combined work helped lead to an experimental drug that uses a “molecular glue” to successfully bind to KRAS and shut down the cancer-driving signals — a breakthrough that could reshape the future not only for pancreatic cancer, but for other deadly KRAS-driven cancers as well.
Impossible vs. Never Been Done. Not the Same Thing.
For years, experts believed humans could not run a mile in under four minutes. Then in 1954, Roger Bannister ran it in 3:59.4. Since then, over 2,000 other runners did too.
Last month, Sabastian Sawe ran the London Marathon in 1:59:30, officially breaking the “impossible” sub-two-hour marathon barrier that had been long considered beyond human limits.
The human body did not suddenly evolve to run faster in a weekend. The belief did.
Instant Thought Experiment For You
Think about one thing in your leadership, business, or life that you quietly experience as impossible right now.
Now ask: Who taught me that? What if it’s wrong?
Notice what changes when you stop treating the assumption as fact and start treating it as a hypothesis.
Mirror — Questions to Reflect On
༄ What “that’s impossible” facts are really just beliefs you stopped questioning?
༄ What “impossible” things would you attempt if you weren’t afraid?
Consider These Common C-Suite Claims:
“We’ve never done that” becomes “we can’t do that.”
“That’s just our industry” becomes “nobody does that, so it must not be doable.”
“The market would never go for it” becomes just “no, we don’t want to fail.”
Sometimes those statements are wisdom. Sometimes they’re fear dressed up in a blazer holding a spreadsheet. Bottom line: Don’t confuse past performance or inherited assumptions with actual impossibilities.
Window — 4 Examples of Impossible, Until it Wasn’t
For years, many in the nonprofit world believed it was unrealistic to expect ordinary people to raise thousands of dollars, train for months, and then walk or ride for days to support causes like breast cancer and AIDS.
Then Dan Pallotta and his team helped prove otherwise: raising hundreds of millions of dollars through events that challenged long-standing assumptions about what people were willing and able to do.
SpaceX challenged the assumption that rockets had to be disposable. Now boosters routinely land themselves.
Airbnb challenged the belief that strangers would never trust each other enough to stay in one another’s homes.
Patagonia challenged the idea that a company encouraging reduced consumption could not thrive financially.
In each case, the barrier was partly psychological. Research on the “Pygmalion effect” has consistently shown that expectations shape performance. People often behave within the limits they unconsciously accept as real.
As a leader, you shape those limits constantly.
Door Into Action: 3 Amare Steps to Turn Impossible Into Possible
1. Identify three key things you treat as impossibilities. List three major things your team says “can’t” be done. For each one, ask: “Is this physically impossible, financially impossible, legally impossible, or just something that’s never been done?”
2. Run one small impossibility experiment. Choose one idea people dismiss quickly and test it on a small scale within the next 30 days instead of discussing it endlessly.
3. Watch your language. For one week, eliminate phrases like “that’ll never work” or “we can’t do that” from meetings. Replace them with: “What would have to be true for this to work?”
Amare Team Talk
Ask your team: “What’s one thing we’ve accepted as ‘just the way it is’ that may no longer be true?” Then spend ten minutes separating actual constraints from inherited assumptions.
Your Inspirational Challenge
One of the great responsibilities of leadership is expanding what your people believe is possible — without drifting into fantasy or denial.
The leaders who transform industries, heal diseases, and reshape cultures are often not the loudest or most confident people in the room. They are the ones willing to question assumptions others quietly accept as facts.
Some breakthroughs come from expertise. Some come from persistence. And some begin the moment someone refuses to confuse “we haven’t solved it yet” with “it can’t be solved.”
Right now, somewhere inside your organization, team, or life, there may be a problem people you care about have stopped trying to solve because you, or conventional wisdom, declared it impossible years ago.
That may be exactly where your next breakthrough is waiting.
Onward and upward!
– Moshe
Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”
— Henry Ford, American industrialist
Click here and read more Amare Wave Wednesday newsletters on related topics:
Limiting Assumptions Limit Your Success: 5 Amare Steps To Better Assumptions, Strategies, Results – The Magic Leadership Triangle
3 Keys to Becoming a Generous Leader
Fulfill All Your Leadership Potential by Facing & Freeing Your Deepest Fear
Change Your Words, Change Your Culture, Change the World
When “No” Means Go: How Constraints Spark Creative Leadership Breakthroughs
Original article published on Inc.com.
