Stop Riding Dead Horses—Or Be Left Behind!
Stop Riding Dead Horses by Andreas von der Heydt

Stop Riding Dead Horses—Or Be Left Behind!

Dear life amplifiers,

The world is in violent transformation. And yet, too many people refuse to let go of what’s already broken. Although it’s now chic and en vogue to go around proclaiming that things can’t stay as they are and that change is urgent, most of it is just talk.

There’s no shortage of experts and know-it-alls. But time is running out.

GenAI is accelerating at an uncontrollable pace. DeepSeek in China is just the latest disruptor. What’s next?

Tech billionaires are diluting their values for power, political landscapes are shifting to the right across the globe, DEI initiatives are being abandoned, social injustice is deepening, and the climate crisis barrels forward unchecked.

Still, businesses, leaders, politicians, and individuals keep clinging to failing ideas, outdated strategies, and crumbling systems: riding dead horses as if sheer willpower will bring them back to life. It won’t.

?? We don’t need small adjustments. We need radically different plans. And more importantly, we need action. The future won’t wait for those too slow or too scared to move. If it fails? Do it again. And again. Reinvention isn’t an option anymore. It’s survival!

?? Why Do We Keep Riding Dead Horses?

  • The Comfort Trap: Familiarity feels safer than the uncertainty of change, even when the status quo is failing.
  • Ego Over Evolution: Admitting a strategy is dead means admitting we were wrong, and that bruises the ego.
  • Sunk Cost Delusion: The more we’ve invested in something, the harder it is to walk away; even if the losses pile up.
  • Fear of the Unknown: A broken system is still a system. No system at all? That’s terrifying.
  • Societal Conditioning: We’re trained to persist, endure, and never quit. So we stay loyal to bad ideas longer than we should.

?? The Pattern? Humans are wired to resist change, clinging to familiarity, identity, and past investments—even when it defies logic.

?? How to Break the Cycle

  • Normalize Quitting: Walking away isn’t failure. It’s the smartest move when the path is clearly broken.
  • Prototype Relentlessly: Test, fail, iterate, and repeat. The first plan rarely works, but version 10 might.
  • Detach from Past Investments: The money, time, and energy already spent are gone. What matters is what works now.
  • Seek Discomfort: If an idea feels safe and obvious, it’s probably not disruptive enough for the future.
  • Act, Then Adjust: Thinking alone changes nothing. Bold action, no matter how messy, creates momentum.

?? The Pattern? Escape requires rewiring our mindset: seeing failure as iteration, quitting as strategy, and action as the only path forward.

The dead horses of yesterday won’t carry us into the future. Dismount. Find a new horse. Or better yet, build a jetpack.

?? We don’t just need different ideas, we need action! And if it doesn’t work, we do it again. And again. Until it does!

That takes courage. The courage to stand up, push forward, and make things happen. No matter what!

The world is moving, with or without us…

Wishing you good reflections combined with strong actions!

Best,

Andreas von der Heydt

https://andreasvonderheydt.com

#change #future #technology #GenAI #DeepSeek #Europe #USA #China #resistance #growth #strategy #action #execution #courage #teamwork #leader #leadership

***********************

If you want to unlock your potential and go new ways, feel free to ping me on LinkedIn or visit my website. I′m an executive & leadership coach. Advisor to C-suite executives, senior leaders, and entrepreneurs. A former executive board member and leader at Amazon, Chewy, L’Oréal, REWE, and others.


Evelyn Ho

Consultant clinical radiologist - A heart for advocacy in breast health, palliative care, environmental sustainability - Believes in patient-centered care

2 周

What an invigorating write up on flogging dead horses (the 'phrase" I am familiar with) but riding gives us better imagery of what we might be doing without realising it!

回复

Thank you, relevant and to the point!

回复
Cornelius Keller

Senior DevOps Engineer @bundesdruckerei

4 周

If you ride a dead horse long enough you don't smell it anymore.

Lars Laumeyer

L?st technische Probleme mit innovativen Konstruktionen | Gründer von Innokappa | Entwicklungsingenieur

4 周

Now is the time to innovate!

回复
María Beatriz Espinosa

Scientist (Biological Sciences).

4 周

These days I met a couple while they were shopping. I went in to buy groceries there. We shared points of view, generalities, they said, "the world has changed." I heard: "you are retarded"... hahaha. Let's agree that babies will not be born with much less than 9 months of gestation, puberty will be around 12 years and longevity may be longer or shorter but there will be an end for each individual. There are biological realities that will remain more or less the same. It is possible that socially the changes will be fast and dazzling but the environment can, as we are already seeing, put its limits in sight. What is unquestionable is the accumulation of capital in few hands. I think those predictions about the system's economy have already been made (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overaccumulation#:~:text=When%20a%20market%20becomes%20flooded,from%20a%20lack%20of%20demand.).- It's fascinating to see what's happening except for the sadness and bitterness that can be seen on people's faces. There are lukewarm reactions on the networks. Greetings!

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