That “But” Is Costing You More Than You Think.

There’s probably something in your business right now that you really want...

but there’s a reason you believe you can’t have it.

I want to grow, but I don’t have more time.

I want to delegate, but nobody will do it the way I do.

I want better marketing, but I don’t want to hire another person.

I want AI to help, but I don’t trust what it produces.

We say these things so naturally that we rarely notice what the word “but” is doing.

It’s quietly deciding what’s possible before we’ve even tried to solve the problem.

And I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

There’s an old story about Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot.

The legend said whoever could untie this impossibly complicated knot would become ruler of Asia.

People tried.

And tried.

And failed.

Then Alexander came along.

Depending on which version of the legend you hear, the details differ, but the lesson is the same:

He stopped trying to solve the problem the way everyone else was solving it.

He changed the frame.

And that’s the part I care about.

Because I think we do the opposite all the time in business.

We get trapped between:

This OR that.

I want this, BUT...

And once we accept that framing, our brain starts working inside the limitation.

Think about something you want right now.

Maybe you want to grow without adding more people.

Maybe you want more time without slowing the business down.

Maybe you want to create more content without lowering the quality.

Maybe you want your team to take more ownership without losing control of the outcome.

Usually we turn those into an OR.

Growth or time.

Scale or quality.

Delegation or control.

But what happens if you replace the OR with AND?

I want to grow and have more time.

I want to delegate and maintain my standards.

I want to create more and improve the quality.

Now your brain has a very different problem to solve.

Instead of asking:

“Which one am I willing to sacrifice?”

You start asking:

“What would have to be true for me to have both?”

That question is much more interesting.

And this is where I think AI becomes incredibly powerful.

Not as a vending machine.

Not:

“Write me a blog post.”

“Rewrite this email.”

“Give me five ideas.”

Those things are fine.

But they barely scratch the surface.

AI gives us an opportunity to bring it problems that previously felt contradictory and say:

Here’s where I am.

Here are the two outcomes I want.

I refuse to assume I have to choose between them.

Help me think through what would need to be true for both to happen.

Now you’re not asking AI to give you an answer.

You’re using it to help you see possibilities you may have eliminated before the conversation even started.

That’s the insight I want you to take from this:

Sometimes the problem isn’t the problem.

The problem is the constraint we quietly attached to it.

“I can't because...”

“I have to choose...”

“That would work, but...”

Those words feel like facts.

A lot of the time, they’re assumptions.

And if we bring those same assumptions into AI, AI will happily help us operate inside them.

But if we remove them?

That’s when the conversation gets interesting.

So here's something I want you to try.

Think about one problem you've been struggling with.

Then listen for the sentence you say immediately afterward:

“I want ________, but ________.”

Don't fix it yet.

Just notice it.

For me, those “buts” often show up around wanting to grow something and not wanting that growth to require more of my personal time.

So instead of immediately accepting the tradeoff, I'm trying to ask:

What would have to be true for both to happen?

That one shift has led me into some very different conversations with AI.

And with myself.

👇 I go deeper into this in the full video.

I walk through the Alexander story, why I think “but” and “or” quietly limit us, and how I'm using “and” to approach AI and business problems differently.

For the physicians reading this 👨‍⚕️

We've already built a community where doctors exchange ideas, questions, and real experiences around AI and marketing.

It's called AiM (AI & Marketing) Rounds.

It's not about pretending everyone has AI figured out.

Quite the opposite.

It's a place to ask questions, share what's working, talk through what's not, and learn how other physicians are navigating all of this.

If you'd like to be part of it, reply “JOIN AIM” and I'll send you the WhatsApp link.

A few things worth checking out 👀

Just sharing a few things I've been exploring lately:

• 🤝 Let’s connect: I share more thoughts like this on LinkedIn

• 📘 Book I keep thinking about: The Delegation Trap

• 🤖 What we’re building with AI: A look at what we’re working on with AI

• 📖 Currently reading: The book on my nightstand right now

• 🛠 Tool I’ve been using: Simple, powerful, and keeps everything in one place.

But before you go, I actually want to hear something from you.

Finish this sentence:

“I want __________, but __________.”

Don't overthink it.

Just hit reply and finish the sentence.

One sentence is enough.

I read every response and this is one I'd genuinely love to talk about with you.

— Atiba