Discomfort is a training ground.

People chase breakthroughs because they look clean.

They look fast.

They look like a moment you can point to and say,

that was it.

The world sells the idea that one decision or one hack delivers the full return. The work that matters stays hidden.

The part that actually changes you happens much earlier, where progress looks invisible, where you wonder why you signed up for this in the first place.

Discomfort is a training ground.

Not the dramatic kind, the slow kind that wears you down and forces you to meet yourself. It shows you where your mind breaks its own promises. It reshapes how you make decisions under pressure. It builds a steadiness that strengthens how you lead and how you create.

Founders who stay in this stage grow in ways others do not. They expand their emotional capacity.

They hold more weight without rushing to escape it, and develop a quiet endurance that becomes part of their identity.

Growth begins inside the heaviness, in the stretch most people walk away from.

Sit with:

Where do you exit the moment things feel slow or uncomfortable?

What emotions do you avoid because they interrupt your pace?

What weight are you capable of holding, but still trying to outrun?

What would deepen if you stayed one layer longer?

— Ian Adams, Founder the little red sofa

Before founding the little red sofa, I led strategy and creative for brands like Jeep, HSBC, and Unilever at top global agencies and in-house teams across 8 countries. Now I partner with brands to do the uncomfortable work that builds resilience. That’s how they become unshakable. Impossible to ignore.