I wrote this in May 2018. It was about the reality of getting things done in large organisations. Seven years later the ratio hasn't changed — but the stakes have.
In any large org, the actual work of building something is maybe 30% of the effort. The other 70%? Convincing people.
Every decision has someone who doesn't think it'll work. Directors, managers, stakeholders — all experienced, all with opinions. You don't win by being right. You win by being persuasive.
The 2025 stakes
Nothing has changed except the stakes. Now you're not just convincing people your idea works — you're convincing them it works better than the AI-generated alternative. The ability to sell a vision human-to-human is the ultimate moat.
I've been in rooms where someone presents a well-researched, thoughtful proposal and it gets killed because they couldn't read the room. I've also watched people with half-baked ideas get full backing because they knew exactly how to frame it for the audience.
The best builders I know spend as much time on the pitch as the product. Not because the pitch is more important — but because without it, the product never ships. In a world where AI can generate the alternative in twenty minutes, the pitch is the only thing that can't be automated.