The Office Obstructionist
Sometimes the most expensive employee is not the one making mistakes. It is the one making sure nobody else can make a decision.
Ryan Gartrell
Consultant by day, storyteller by heart. I write about business, creativity, Lean AI®, and the lessons that shape both. Subscribe for real-world insights, narrative-driven strategy, and stories from the front lines of building companies and books.
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Latest posts
The Gordon Ramsay Problem
Why struggling businesses rarely fail because of one big problem and almost always fail because nobody is willing to see the small ones.
The Owner Was the Bottleneck
The Most Common Growth Problem I've Encountered in Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
Cape Coral Is Charging Me for Houses That Don’t Exist
The city’s water-and-sewer expansion may be necessary. Its way of making northern homeowners pay for it is not.
The Day the Internet Stopped Feeling Small
Remember When Being Online Felt Like Joining a Community Instead of Entering a Battlefield?
I Was One Memory Kit Away From My Dream Computer. Then Newegg Introduced Me to Doren Tech.
I paid Newegg. The package went to a man named Paul Garcia in Kansas. Somehow, this became my problem.
The Problem Was Never What They Hired Me to Fix
Every Company Has Symptoms. Very Few Understand the Disease.
The Passenger Seat Is Where Confidence Goes to Die
Teaching my son to drive, one imaginary brake pedal at a time.
The Day I Realized I Wasn’t the Target Customer Anymore
Somewhere Along the Way, the World Moved On
The Second Visit Problem: What a Red Napkin Reveals About Why Customers Don’t Come Back
Most businesses obsess over the first sale. The ones that last engineer what happens next.