Pioneering and the power of collaboration: Why we must challenge the status quo, not each other

Pioneering is hard.

It takes an insane amount of mental strength to keep pushing forward when you’re working on something new, something unproven. You’ll be congratulated, you’ll be applauded—and, more often than not, you’ll be cast out. The risks you take are yours alone until the day your idea works. And when it finally does, everyone is there to join in because you helped normalize it, but they'll only see what it is, not what it took.

I've had the great opportunity to work with and coach some pioneers in their fields, and if there's one thing I want them to take to heart, it’s this: you don’t have to do it alone. Instead of focusing on perfecting your proof of concept or demonstrating your idea in isolation, look for collaboration as soon as possible—preferably even sooner than that. You need partners to help move your idea forward, and you need them early on.

Sustainability: a strategic challenge, not a technological one

Too often, we look at sustainability through the lens of technological innovation. But the real challenge isn’t technological—it’s cultural and strategic. Sustainability is about how we live, how we organize ourselves, and how we define success as a society. It’s about shifting from a focus on wealth to an understanding of the value of wellbeing. It’s about how we look at concepts like ownership, quality of life, agency, and our responsibility to each other.

Technology is a tool—a means to an end. We’re a creative species; everything we make is, in some way, technology. But how we apply that technology is what really matters. That's what gives it relevance. The effectiveness and real impact of sustainability efforts will not come from tech breakthroughs, but from shifting the way we think and act as individuals and communities—and what that means for how we apply tech. Context instead on content.

It’s about realizing there is no "them", there's only "us". If we focus too much on refining technology without looking at the cultural and strategic challenges inherent to sustainability, we risk missing the point entirely.

Collaboration over perfection: a call to pioneers

Don't get me wrong, we need new technologies. We need weird ideas. We need pioneers. But we also need to keep in mind who and what we're challenging. Too often, people working on sustainability end up fighting among themselves. They start arguing about who has the “best” solution, who’s more “right”, while missing the bigger picture. They’re so focused on the details that they fail to see how much overlap they have in potential.

When working on impact, oftentimes your biggest challengers aren’t the ones who don’t care about sustainability—they’re the ones who do. Your peers.

And I get that—I'm guilty of it too. We want to get it right. Because we care. Because it's too important to just tinker around. So we end up fighting for small grants or attention within the same circles. And this competition is slowing us down.

What we need is structural collaboration to challenge the status quo, together.

It’s about teaming up, not a power balance

We’ve been taught to believe that humans have “tamed” or “cultivated” the species around us, from wolves to crops. But as we learn more about nature, we realize it’s not about taming—it’s about teaming up. The species that thrive are the ones that know how to work together, not dominate each other.

Every year, the EU surveys countries to assess how every country ranks in terms of innovation. I'm completely uninterested in who ranks first in those surveys, but something I do find fascinating is reading about the best strategies for innovation. And the number 1 strategy every single year is the same one: "collaboration between SMEs".

We didn’t tame wolves—we teamed up. It's not about the struggle for survival, it’s the snuggle for survival. Those who learn how to collaborate have the biggest impact.

Sustainability and impact entrepreneurship are not technological challenges; they are cultural and strategic ones. Technology will help, but it’s collaboration—across silos, sectors, and societies—that will enable us to break through.

Phoenixes vs. unicorns: the path to structural change

In his book The Phoenix and the Unicorn, Peter Hinssen makes a powerful point: while unicorns—the pioneering, high-flying startups—are exciting, it’s the phoenixes that ultimately drive long-term change. Phoenixes are companies that can reinvent themselves again and again. They’re adaptable, resilient, and capable of integrating new ideas, often laid down by unicorns, into systems that scale.

We need both. We need the unicorns to push boundaries, pioneer new ideas, and challenge the way things are done. But we also need the phoenixes—the companies and organizations that can absorb those ideas and bring them to life in ways that endure.

Pioneers do a lot of the heavy lifting. They normalize new ideas, pave the way for others, and make the status quo uncomfortable. And we need that to challenge the world’s biggest problems. But it's rarely the unicorns that make the breakthrough. I love this cynical comic by SMBC about culture: "You won't go to Mars, but McDonald's will".

The status quo will not be dismantled by one brilliant idea alone. It takes a movement, a transition, a network built on collaboration. It’s not about being the best—it’s about making the biggest impact, together.