Systems Fail Because People Love the Illusion of Complexity More Than the Reality of Clarity
One of the strangest habits we humans possess is our tendency to equate complexity with quality. If something is difficult, intricate, or exhausting to integrate, we assume it must be superior. In business especially, people love turning simple problems into elaborate puzzles. They add layers because layers feel impressive. But more often than not, complexity is nothing more than camouflage.
There’s a particular trap business owners fall into: the search for the “next thing.” The next tool, the next ritual, the next workflow, the next shiny promise of efficiency. You convince yourself that if you just add this one more platform or process, everything will suddenly snap into place. In reality, you’re stacking complexity atop complexity, all while avoiding the obvious truth; you don’t need more tools. You need to use the ones you already have.
This habit is rarely about strategy. It’s about avoidance. Busying yourself with “setup work” feels productive, but it’s an elegant form of hiding. Complexity becomes a shield that protects you from confronting the actions you’ve been postponing. And why do we postpone them? Because they reveal the very gaps we’d prefer not to acknowledge.
I’m no exception. I’ve caught myself installing new browsers, building hypothetical future frameworks, tinkering with systems that had nothing to do with my immediate responsibilities. It felt like preparation, like I was being proactive, when in reality, I was running from what actually needed to happen.
I wasn’t getting ahead of problems. I was fabricating new ones.
At some point, I had to ask myself: was I planning for the future, or was I avoiding the present? And the answer wasn’t flattering. Most of what I was building wasn’t relevant now. It was relevant to a version of my business that didn’t yet exist. Meanwhile, the version that did exist was waiting for me to stop playing architect and start acting like an operator.
The shift came when I became brutally honest about this behavior. Once I admitted that complexity had become an avoidance mechanism, it became impossible to unsee it. And once yo u see it, you can’t keep pretending it’s strategy.
Ask yourself the same question: how often are you delaying action by preparing for something that “might” happen? How much of your structure is built for reality, and how much is built for a fictional scenario in your head? You might be surprised how often the answer is that you’re creating your own obstacles.
Business owners solve problems for others. Yet many spend an enormous amount of time manufacturing problems for themselves. The irony would be funny if it weren’t so costly.
Simplicity demands honesty. It demands that you stop running from the work that feels uncomfortable. And yes—facing that discomfort is unavoidably personal. But if you want clarity, you must walk straight into the issue instead of decorating it with unnecessary systems.
Change comes the moment you stop hiding behind complexity and acknowledge what actually needs to happen. You deserve a business that runs smoothly, not one suffocating beneath structures you don’t need.
From afar, always rooting for your success.
—Ushiro Labs
