Have you ever studied a restaurant menu online, walked in totally confident about what you’re going to order … and then regret it the second the food hits the table?
You thought you wanted pasta, but now everyone else’s tacos look like the better move.
That tiny moment of “oh no, I made a mistake” doesn’t just happen at dinner.
It happens at work, too.
You take a new job, roll out a new initiative, or launch a product, and a few weeks in, you feel it: Maybe this wasn’t the right choice.
Here’s the truth: pivots aren’t failures. They’re part of the process. In today’s business climate – where markets shift overnight and AI is rewriting the rules, pivoting isn’t optional. It’s a leadership skill.
I learned this in the most personal way possible. For decades, living with cystic fibrosis, my entire identity was built around training to die. My energy, focus, and choices all revolved around survival. But when a breakthrough drug saved my life, everything changed. Suddenly, I wasn’t training to die anymore, I had to train to live.
That pivot required rebuilding my identity from the ground up. And it taught me something that applies directly to business: the ability to pivot is the ability to grow.
The best leaders and teams are the ones who:
- Recognize when the current path no longer serves them.
- Refuse to let sunk costs hold them hostage.
- Rebuild around a new story, strategy, and set of possibilities.
Because the biggest mistake isn’t ordering the “wrong” thing off the menu, it’s refusing to pivot when you realize something better is available.
So here’s my question to you: Where in your work, your team, or your leadership do you need to put down the pasta and pivot to the tacos?