How Smart People Stay Stuck: Find the Blind Spots that Block Growth

We can't see what we can't see. When we get stuck, it's because of blind spots that are just a part of how we see the world. It doesn't matter how smart we are — in fact, intelligence can get in the way of seeing these blind spots.

One of the biggest blind spots is around failure. Failure may be the path to innovation and growth, but catchphrases like “fail early, fail fast, fail often” don’t tell us how to get good at the hard reality of failing.

What if you could learn not just to be OK with failure… but to be great at it? What if failure could become the engine for your growth, both at work and in everyday life?

What if you could help others see their blind spots around failure as well?

If that's exciting to you, I invite you to join me and fellow coach and writer Leo Babauta (ZenHabits.net) at our new "How Smart People Stay Stuck" workshop.

Date: Saturday October 25, 2025
Time: 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 18:00 London
Format: 90-minute Zoom video workshop
Register: Blind Spots workshop

In this workshop, you'll learn to:

• Uncover your blind spots. Learn how to see the water you’re swimming in, so you can grow past your brain’s current operating system.
• Turn insights into forward motion. Transform reflections into concrete lessons and strategies that strengthen you as a leader, maker, or entrepreneur.
• Understand failure instead of rationalizing it. Learn to look deeply at the causes of failure so that you can make wise systemic improvements, and help your team do so as well.

We’ll unpack hindsight bias traps that short-circuit learning and explore what makes those traps so powerful. We’ll explore the deeper practice of facing the discomfort of failure and learning from it rather than rushing past it and rationalizing. And we’ll practice meeting failure with curiosity instead of our habitual defenses.

Register for the workshop here!