A friend recently asked me: what’s the most valuable thing you learned from 14 years in pricing? My answer: To stop problem solving.
Which is ironic, because that’s what I spent more than half of my life learning to do. It started in first grade with math problems. It felt so satisfying to write a clear number and know: I figured it out.
School problems got more complex but the game stayed the same. Actuarial work: calculate the answer. Management consulting: find the answer for the client. The problem is the enemy to be defeated. And the world praises and even promotes you for it.
Then I got into pricing, and this no longer worked.
Pricing optimizes across too many variables at once: competitors, customer needs, margin targets, what’s operationally possible. None of them ever fully align. Oftentimes there’s no solution. There are just options with pros and cons. The GM demands more revenue, the CFO insists on more margin, Sales chases compensation. And when things change and you need to revisit a decision, it feels like you got it wrong the first time.
Early on this made me feel like I wasn’t doing my job.
Over time, I realized: the trick was not to solve problems. It was to hold them long enough to see the variables in play and the possibilities they create. Then commit to a path — imperfect, but the best one given what I know right now.
And here’s what letting go unlocked in work and in life: when things change, I just recalibrate the problem I’m holding. Another route becomes best. No ego, no defeat — I never cracked it and crossed off every other path. I’m just adjusting my route on the map.
