Most Things Don’t Fail. They Fade.
You know that project you keep defending?
The one you cannot quite explain anymore?
The one where every decision feels tactical but nothing feels clear?
You are in the middle. And the middle is where most things die.
In 2020 I built an esports team.
The start was electric. Vision was clear. The logo mattered. The roster felt like momentum.
Then came the middle.
No collapse. No scandal. Just questions I could not answer cleanly.
Why is this person on the team? What are we building? Are we a competitive roster or a promotional vehicle? Am I building talent or renting attention?
I was older. I had lived through cycles. I should have known better.
But the middle does not announce itself. It feels responsible. It feels patient. It feels like you are figuring it out.
What you are often doing is maintaining confusion.
The pattern most people miss: projects rarely fail at the start. The start is powered by belief. It forgives mistakes. Endings are clean. You shut it down or scale it.
The middle is fog.
You are too invested to quit.
Not clear enough to expand.
Too proud to admit you are drifting.
I kept debating tactics. More streamers? Influencer deals? Rebrand?
Those were not real questions. They were distractions.
The real question was simple: What is this team for?
I could not answer it in one sentence. That was the tell.
When you cannot define the purpose, standards slip. You keep people because replacing them feels heavy. You defend past decisions because reversing them feels like weakness.
You move. But you do not drive.
The mistake surprises me. Not because I was inexperienced. But because I ignored my own pattern recognition. I have seen drift before. In business. In partnerships. In ideas that outlived their clarity.
Experience does not make you immune. It just gives you the option to reflect.
The team failed. The lesson is not about esports. It is about maintenance mode.
Maintenance mode feels disciplined. It is often decay in disguise.
The middle is where most things die because no one calls it what it is.
If you are in the middle of something right now, do not look for motivation. Look for definition.
Ask the question I avoided: What is this for?
Then sit with the answer without defending yourself.
Go check this in your own work. Not the start. Not the finish. The middle.
That is where the truth is.
My Big Ask…
If this diagnostic hit, share it. Someone in your network is maintaining confusion right now and does not know it yet. Send them this. Let them run the test.
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V➤ Most projects do not collapse. They fade because no one has the courage to redefine them midstream. Bottom line: I was reminded the hard way.