Why I’m building iPhones, not iPads

The problem with big dreams

When I first learned coaching skills, I was blown away.

Not just by how true listening worked and how powerful it was, but even more by the fact that this isn’t something we teach everyone. Like from a young age.

This should be in schools, I thought.

So from that moment, it became my vision to start building something. A kind of school (in whatever form) for listening skills.

Not for coaches, but for everyone.

Big Means Heavy

The working tagline for my new project was something like: “How to improve your personal and professional relationships by learning to listen.”

I thought, okay, this is big, this is necessary. So I started playing around with the details. Building the curriculum. Doing some small experiments.

But then… nothing really happened.

The project felt so big, so vague, so “grand,” that it weighed me down before I even started. So I didn’t start.

I thought about it constantly. But I wasn’t moving.

It felt important, but not buildable.

The iPad Problem

Coaches need coaching too, of course. Just because we’re trained to coach others doesn’t mean we can see our own blind spots.

Besides working with professional coaches, I’m lucky to be surrounded by people who know how to listen. Friends who ask good questions, who don’t jump to fix things, who hold space the way coaches do. Without any certification.

One of them (also a creator) told me a story while I was stuck thinking about my big idea:

Apple had originally been working on the iPad. That was the big dream. But the technology wasn’t quite there yet. The screens were too expensive, the processors too big, the whole idea was quite literally ahead of its time.

So they asked: What can we build now? What’s needed? What will actually work today?

The answer wasn’t the iPad. It was the iPhone.

And then he asked me: “What iPhones can you start building while your iPad is still out of reach?”

In Plain Sight

The shift was almost psychedelic (the sudden clarity kind, not the purging-in-the-jungle kind).

I knew from coaching what a well-phrased question could do, and this was definitely one of them.

Energy and clarity rushed in, and I could suddenly see what I needed to do.

Before that, I’d been circling this big idea. Dreaming, theorizing, polishing the could-be’s in my head. But none of it led anywhere. The idea felt important, but in no way was I moving towards it. It was just sitting there in my mind, too big, too vague, too far away.

My friend’s question shifted that in an instant:

Where am I already ahead of the people I want to help?
What do they actually need?
What can I build right now?

Well that’s easy, I thought.

Two ideas surfaced almost immediately. One for stuck writers struggling to build a consistent practice. One for course creators with quiet, disengaged communities.

These ideas weren’t new, I just didn’t notice them before. The groundwork for both was already there. But because they didn’t look like the big dream, I dismissed them. Up until now.

So I got to work.

Applying Myself

Both are in the works right now.

And even though these offers focus on specific problems and audiences, they’ll still teach real listening along the way. The big vision is still in there. Just applied and focused.

What unlocked everything was shifting my focus to what people needed and what I could actually build right now.

I stopped waiting for the perfect moment to build something big, and started solving real problems right in front of me. The dream didn’t evaporate or shrink. It came into focus.

So what iPad is weighing you down? What iPhones could you start building today?