6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Alice’s Advice to Business

We are in an unprecedented world, which might suggest there are things that are possible that the past is not inclined to suggest. Adjacent to this is the ability to imagine making the “impossible” happen, in a manner outside of what is commonly believed to be possible. Let’s unpack these.

In the first case, can we create a space in our leadership for what doesn’t currently fit in the horizon of our view? If we don’t think something is possible, and won’t allow for the impossible to be possible, then we won’t be looking for it, and then of course, it won’t happen.

Just to be clear, this isn’t magically waving a wand and deciding that something defies gravity. What it does do is it allows us to imagine beyond the walls of our cultural orientation to what is commonly decided as possible, based on the point of view of classical business science. It makes space for something new.

Consider the nay-sayers who said:

• Online shopping would be a minor fad
• Orbital rocket boosters would never be able to land vertically and be re-usable
• Digital cameras would never gain popularity

The businesses who couldn’t ‘see’ these possibilities because it didn’t fit with their view of reality, also missed massive business opportunity.

Business globally invested over 2 trillion USD in R&D in 2025 and continues to rise. If business doesn’t have an eye to the unprecedented, it may miss the very innovation that is needed to move into a new arena.

There is a tendency to collapse what we believe is possible or not, and the manner in which the ‘so-called’ impossible could happen. We might believe it’s not possible because we don’t yet see a way for it to be true.

When we tease these apart, we can be present to both the possibility of something without yet being concerned with how it could happen and also be present to the manner in which it happens from the same openness.

Even if we consider something “impossible” might be possible, if we restrict the way that impossible can happen to classical business science, we again won’t be looking for a way for it to happen, and, it won’t happen.

Consider ways classical science was not able to explain the “impossible” in nature. It wasn’t until an entirely different point of view emerged that we were able to make sense of some natural processes:

• Early scientists thought bumblebee flight was impossible because they treated the bee as a small airplane in their measurements;
• Classical science could not explain how enzyme reactions could occur at normal cellular temperatures; quantum science was able to provide an explanation (quantum tunneling);
• Standard science could not explain how geckos could climb smooth glass walls; microscopic molecular forces provided the explanation

In the advent of AI, there might be an inclination to think that we are at the front of the wave of AI making advancements previously not thought possible. It is already blowing our minds and will continue to do so. Why not leave it up to AI to continue surprise us with new possibilities?

Our response is this: nature, including us, has quantum processing, and might just have some surprising possibilities waiting for us, inclusive and transcendent of what we can imagine through AI.

All of this comes down to what we are doing with our awareness as leaders: what are we allowing to be possible?

Do you have a way to be present to the unprecedented, and make space for the so-called impossible? Can you then be present to the manner in which something “not possible” might come into form, perhaps outside of the classical business science canon?