If I could sit down with my younger self back in 2011, there’s one truth I wish someone had warned me about.
Back then, I had just joined one of the most exciting initiatives at IBM. It took four months of persistence to finally land a spot.
I was pumped. Ready to change the world. I thought: “Let’s do this. Three to six months, and we’ll have something incredible.”
Here’s what I wish someone had told me then:
Stop rushing. This is going to take far more time than you think.
When you join something big, whether it’s a groundbreaking initiative like Watson, a major transformation, or a company-wide change, you walk in thinking you understand the landscape.
You’ve done your homework. You’ve asked questions. You’re ready.
But here’s the truth: You don’t know what you don’t know yet. And you’re going to discover it in the most unexpected ways.
The project timelines you estimated? Add months, maybe years.
The smooth path you envisioned? It’s going to be long and, honestly, sometimes painful.
That’s not failure. That’s reality.
Here’s what really surprised me about those early years:
I thought I was joining to build and deploy something innovative.
But that’s maybe 20-30% of what actually happens.
The rest of your time?
You’re convincing people. You’re influencing them.
You’re explaining the same concept in seventeen different ways because everyone processes information differently.
You become less of a specialist and more of a translator. Less of a builder and more of a guide.
And the hand-holding? It’s not a detour from work.
It is work.
Becoming Comfortable With Discomfort
The hardest thing for me to accept was this: I had to get comfortable with ambiguity.
There were days when I didn’t have clear answers. Weeks when progress felt invisible. Months when I questioned if we were even moving in the right direction.
I had to learn to be more patient.
But major initiatives don’t move at the speed you want them to. They move at the speed people need them to.
And people need:
Time to understand what’s changing.
Space to voice their concerns.
Repeated conversations before they trust something new.
The chance to see it work before they fully commit.
You can’t rush trust. You can’t shortcut understanding.
What This Means For You
Maybe you’re joining a new company initiative, leading a department transformation, or working on something that’s never been done before.
Whatever it is, here’s my advice:
Give yourself permission to take the time it actually needs, not the time you wish it would take.
Embrace the fact that most of your effort will go toward bringing people along, not just executing tasks.
Find patience in places you didn’t know you had it. The project will get there when it gets there.
When you do it right, something remarkable happens.
The work doesn’t just get done, it scales.
The people don’t just participate, they become advocates.
And the impact doesn’t just appear. It transforms how everything works going forward.
But only if you’re willing to give it the time it deserves.
So to my 2011 self, standing at the beginning of that incredible journey, I’d say this:
Get ready for the ride.
Don’t be impatient. This is going to take time if you’re going to do it right.
And trust me – it’s worth every long, uncertain, ambiguous moment.
What hard-won lesson would you go back and tell your past self before joining a big, bold initiative? I’d love to hear your take, drop it in the comments
Until next time,
Sol