Why lone wolves struggle with big problems

Lone wolves are celebrated in movies but rarely succeed in reality. Big problems—those gnarly, complex, high-stakes ones—are too messy, too layered for one person to solve alone.

Real breakthroughs happen in the spaces between perspectives. Collaboration amplifies insights and uncovers blind spots. Lone wolves struggle because they rely only on their own lens, limiting creativity and missing opportunities for unexpected synergy.

If you’re tackling big challenges solo, ask yourself: Who can help? Who sees the problem differently that your ideas can collide with? You don’t need to have all the answers—you need to gather the right pack.

Even the great artists and inventors had collaborators. Picasso had Georges Braque to help develop Cubism, Thomas Edison had a team of researchers at Menlo Park, including Francis Upton and Nikola Tesla who helped invent the electric light, Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak to create Apple and Alexander Graham Bell had Thomas Watson to help build and refine the first telephone.

Big problems demand shared vision and shared effort. Collaboration isn’t a weakness; it’s the secret to thriving in complexity.