The Creation of Adam, By Michelangelo - Transferred from nl.wikipedia, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3818849

Picture Michelangelo staring up at the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. Most artists would see walls, corners, and awkward angles as limitations that constrain their vision. But Michelangelo saw something different: a unique canvas that would force him to innovate in ways no flat surface ever could. Those constraints became the very source of his masterpiece.

The average tenure on the S&P 500 is shrinking dramatically, from about 33 years in 1965 to just over 20 years today, with forecasts suggesting it could drop to 15-20 years this decade. Why do some companies manage to adapt, while others stumble and fade away? After decades of working with innovators, startup founders, and leaders in big organizations, I'm convinced the answer lies not in avoiding constraints, but in transforming them into superpowers.

I call this way of thinking the ENDURE framework. It's built on the simple idea that your biggest limitation might actually be your greatest competitive advantage if you know how to work with it.

The Constraint Paradox

We're taught to see constraints as problems to solve or barriers to overcome. But when the right mindset meets the right limitations, we see something different:

• Divers who use sign language communicate underwater better than hearing divers because sign language works perfectly when sound doesn't travel

• Programmers in 1980s Eastern Europe, starved of computing power, wrote incredibly efficient code that put Silicon Valley to shame

• DeepSeek recently trained world-class AI models more efficiently than tech giants, precisely because they couldn't access the newest chips

Constraints don't need to weaken you. They can help you develop capabilities others never need to build.

What Does ENDURE Stand For?

ENDURE is your training system for turning limitations into competitive advantages. Here are the six habits that transform constraints into superpowers:

Environmental Exploration: Train yourself to spot opportunities others miss within constraints. When resources are scarce, develop the discipline to notice possibilities that abundance blinds competitors to.

Network Orchestration: Build strategic partnerships that work around your limitations. Like a distance runner who finds the perfect drafting position, orchestrate collaborations that turn isolation into collective strength.

Disruptive Discovery: Practice focused experimentation within constraints. Develop the discipline to use limitations as forcing functions for breakthrough thinking that cuts straight to what matters most.

Unmet Needs Insight: Hone your ability to see problems others overlook. Train yourself to spot customer needs that well-resourced competitors are too comfortable to notice.

Resilience: Master the art of recovery and learning from failure. Like an athlete who analyzes every missed shot to improve their form, build cultures where setbacks strengthen capabilities rather than weakening confidence.

Elasticity: Develop organizational adaptability under changing constraints. Like a gymnast who adjusts technique across different apparatus, structure your company to reconfigure quickly without losing core effectiveness.

Your Constraint Training Plan

Think of ENDURE like an elite athlete's training regime designed around your specific limitations. Your company's biggest constraint determines which ENDURE habits you should focus on first. We call this your "constraint kernel."

Just like Michelangelo used the chapel's awkward ceiling as creative fuel, your biggest constraint often contains your biggest opportunity. Here's how to find and develop yours:

1. Name Your Constraint: What limitation is your organization always working around? Often, it was the defining reason your organization started, but as you grow, your constraints change. Don't sugarcoat it; own it completely.

2. Flip the Perspective: How might this constraint force you to develop capabilities your competitors don't need? What new superpower could emerge from this limitation?

3. Pick Your ENDURE Focus: Which habits will help you turn this constraint into competitive advantage? Start with 1-2 habits rather than trying to develop all six simultaneously.

4. Train Into the Constraint: Instead of working around the limitation, work with it. Build your development plan around getting stronger exactly where you're most limited.

5. Scale Your Superpower: Constraint-based capabilities often scale better than traditional advantages because they're built on necessities, not luxuries.

The Innovation Trap and the ENDURE Feedback Loop

Every leader faces the challenge of balancing near-term revenues with long-term growth. You know "culture eats strategy for breakfast," and as I like to add, "innovation as a mid-morning snack." Most organizations systematically resist change, no matter how brilliant the innovation.

Machiavelli captured this perfectly when he observed that introducing new ideas is extraordinarily difficult because "the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new." People resist new ideas because they "will never admit the merit of anything new, until they have seen it proved by the event."

In other words, you can't just prototype the functionality of change, you have to prototype the experience of change. People need to feel what the new order will be like before they'll embrace it.

The only way to break this cycle is to build the required habits through the ENDURE feedback loop: when habits shape culture, culture drives strategy, strategy enables innovation, and innovation success reinforces the habits that made it possible. This creates a virtuous cycle where constraint-driven innovation becomes self-reinforcing rather than culturally rejected.

The loop works like this: Habits → Culture → Strategy → Innovation → Reinforcement

To make this work, you need metrics and rewards that reinforce the ENDURE habits, not just innovation outcomes:

• Celebrate constraint-based breakthroughs: When someone turns a limitation into an advantage, make it legendary

• Reward experimentation within constraints: Don't just measure outcomes; measure learning from limitations

• Share stories of constraint superpowers: Help people see examples of limitations becoming competitive advantages

• Measure resilience and adaptability: Track how quickly teams bounce back and what they learn from setbacks

When your team practices Environmental Exploration and discovers a new opportunity, celebrate the scanning behavior, not just the discovery. When Network Orchestration leads to a breakthrough partnership, reward the relationship-building, not just the deal. When Disruptive Discovery produces a failed experiment that teaches something valuable, recognize the learning, not just successful outcomes.

How Does It Work in Practice?

Your constraint training plan might look like:

• Crisis mode? Use Resilience and Elasticity to build antifragile systems that get stronger under pressure

• Resource constraints? Focus on Environmental Exploration and Disruptive Discovery to find opportunities others miss

• Market isolation? Develop Network Orchestration and Unmet Needs Insight to build deeper connections than well-connected competitors

Every company, from startups to mature organizations, will face inflection points that require new plays to be run and new habits to develop.

How Do You Know You're Getting It Right?

Ask yourself and your team:

• What constraint are we transforming into competitive advantage? And how can we do that?

• Which ENDURE habit feels most natural (and which feels hardest)? They are all important, but don't all need the same focus.

• Are we working around our constraints or training into them? Are we thinking long term, or just coasting?

• Is our culture helping us see limitations as opportunities for unique capabilities? Are we hiring the right people with the right mindsets?

• Are our innovation metrics reinforcing constraint-leveraging behaviors? Metrics drive behavior, and instead of adding new ones every time new behaviors are needed, they need to be focused squarely on the ENDURE habits.

In a Nutshell

The secret to enduring isn't avoiding constraints but using them as your training ground. Like Michelangelo transforming those chapel walls from limitation into a masterpiece, the ENDURE framework helps you turn your constraints into what sets you apart.

This new order of thinking won't take hold overnight. Your supporters may be lukewarm initially, and skeptics will only come around after experiencing the results. The key is building that culture-innovation feedback loop so each constraint-based breakthrough reinforces the habits that made it possible.

If you're ready to transform your biggest challenge into your greatest strength, give ENDURE a shot. The companies that last aren't the ones with the fewest constraints; they're the ones who've learned to make constraints their superpower.

Over the next weeks, I will be adding some case studies of companies that have endured, and I will try to map their evolution to this framework.