The Iron Triangle of Business

There is no other way

The first day I show up to cinematography class the know-it-all Italian teacher (he looked like Mike Piazza) started the class exclaiming something simple but hasn’t changed in any era of my life.

“Guys, when you get a job or do anything in the film biz, you have to realize that there are only three things you can provide to your customer

1. A Quality job

2. Do it Fast

3. Make it Cheap

But you have to remind them, and yourself, you can only do two.”

And 26 years later, what he shared in freshman class is relevant for anything that you do:

Software

Construction

Sales

AI

Investing

The point is that nothing gets built without giving something else up.

Apparently, the business world already discovered this and refer to it as The Iron Triangle

Once you understand that rule, headlines start looking different.

Like this one:

He got there fast, and cheap: leverage lets you skip putting up real capital. What he didn't buy was safety, because safety is the expensive one. Something had to give.

So when you observe success just ask those three questions before coming to a conclusion.

Tomorrow, I want to share an observation from The Odyssey in IMAX that completely changed how I thought about Christopher Nolan's film.

Every day, I try to find one timeless principle hiding inside a headline with more exclusive access and beta testing for subscribers.

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