Reaching “success” in the real world – in life and business – often feels like exploring an uncharted territory with countless variables. This morning an interesting analogy came to mind: what if we view the journey to success as navigating a high-dimensional space using gradient descent? This perspective not only provides a fresh way to conceptualize the challenges but also explains why success isn’t typically found by following a single, linear path.
What’s Gradient Descent?
Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm widely used in mathematics and machine learning to find the minimum of a function. Imagine you’re standing on a foggy mountain landscape, and you wish to reach the lowest valley point. You can’t see the entire terrain due to the fog, so how do you proceed?
You start by feeling the slope beneath your feet and take a small step in the direction where the ground slopes downward the most steeply. You repeat this process, continually stepping in the direction of the steepest descent. Over time, you’ll find yourself at the lowest point. This method is gradient descent:
- Local Decision Making: At each point, you make decisions based solely on local information—the slope at your current position.
- Iterative Process: Successive steps lead you closer to the minimum.
- High-Dimensional Spaces: In more complex scenarios, you might be moving across multiple dimensions simultaneously.
Business as a High-Dimensional Space
In business, success isn’t about one thing—it’s about juggling many factors at the same time. Each factor is like a dimension in a high-dimensional space:
- Product Features
- Market Trends
- Customer Preferences
- Pricing
- Marketing Channels
- Operations
- Team Dynamics
- Competition
Navigating this space means tweaking multiple factors to move closer to your goal—just like finding the lowest point in a complex landscape.
The Subjectivity of Success
An important aspect of this analogy is recognizing that success is subjective. The high-dimensional space — your “map” — differs for each of us because our definitions of success vary:
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Personal Success: For one person, success might mean having a traditional family life with a home in the suburbs, a partner, and children. For another, it’s about traveling the world and experiencing life in diverse cultures. These represent entirely different maps of success.
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Business Success: In the business realm, success often links to profitability, but definitions still vary:
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Solopreneur Example: A solopreneur might define success as achieving $3,000 in recurring monthly revenue, making that a successful local minimum within their map.
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Venture-Backed Business: For a large, venture-backed company, that same $3,000 monthly revenue might signify a failure rather than a success. Their map requires reaching a different point entirely to be considered a success.
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So, even if the space is similar, the journey and the indicators of success can differ greatly depending on individual or organizational goals.
Why Single Directions Rarely Work
From childhood and school, we often learn that paths to achieving goals, even substantial ones like earning a master’s degree or a doctorate, are relatively straightforward. However, the real world — whether it’s life or business — resembles a much more high-dimensional space.
In such a space, moving in a single direction — taking only one kind of action or applying a single tactic — rarely leads to success. Instead, it can easily lead us off course. Achieving success requires moving simultaneously in various directions:
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Comprehensive Strategies: In building a business, focusing solely on creating an excellent product won’t guarantee success. It’s like having the most beautiful tree in the forest, but if nobody knows about it or how to reach it, nobody will see it, let alone pay you for it.
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Multi-Faceted Approaches: Businesses need to balance multiple activities, such as marketing, customer service, product development, and sales, all at the same time to achieve success.
The Non-Existence of Recipes for Success
Given these complexities, the idea that there exists a simple, one-size-fits-all “recipe for success” is misleading at best. Many people sell courses and tactics promising guaranteed success, but they often present a single direction which, as we’ve seen, is inadequate for navigating complex, high-dimensional spaces. Even well-intentioned and nuanced advice usually reflects what worked in their particular “map” of success.
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Diverse Resources: While there are many valuable resources from reputable experts, these typically offer insights based on their definitions of success. Trying to force-fit these into your own journey can lead to frustration.
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Community Sentiment: This misalignment between promise and reality contributes to disillusionment in communities on platforms like X, Reddit, or Hacker News, where people express skepticism about such courses.
Finding Your Unique Path
The reality is a lot more nuanced, but awareness of this complexity can be liberating. Here’s how I approach it:
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Experiment Broadly: Rather than sticking to one tactic, try a variety of strategies. Use insights from different resources to experiment with multiple approaches.
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Adapt and Adjust: Take action using a tactic or idea that looks promising — a direction where the slope seems steep. Then, evaluate your new situation and adjust.
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Iterate Consciously: Embrace a path that may look erratic or “drunken” at times, but ensure it’s driven by conscious decisions and evaluations. Gradually, this will guide you toward areas in the space that align with your definition of success.
This process is far more practical and effective than blindly following a single path because someone claims it’s where success lies.
Conclusion
Thinking of business navigation like gradient descent in high-dimensional space offers fresh insights:
- Step-by-Step Progress: Small, informed moves lead to significant advancements.
- Multi-Faceted Approach: Balancing many factors is key to success.
- Subjective Success: Understand that your definition of success shapes your journey.
- Adaptability: Being ready to change direction based on feedback is crucial.
- Conscious Experimentation: Explore different paths and continually adapt to navigate complex spaces.
By adopting this mindset, you can better navigate complexities, steadily moving toward success through thoughtful adjustments on multiple fronts.