Pool

One significant psychological barrier we faced when working with the robot was the fear that it might fall into the pool.

Often, the greatest obstacle to learning is the fear of the unknown. If we’re unwilling to step beyond our comfort zones and confront common anxieties—like worrying that a relatively expensive cleaning robot might accidentally tumble into the pool and get destroyed—it becomes difficult to push our ideas forward.

With the robot, this was the first challenge we had to confront during our outdoor vacuuming tests. We needed to take a calculated risk, closely monitor its behavior, and ultimately discover that its lidar navigation was remarkably effective; it wasn't going to fall into the pool after all.

That fear turned out to be the first bottleneck.

The next challenge was dealing with the robot getting stuck.

It’s funny how our own perceptions can become the biggest barriers to progress and growth. This is a classic example of a poverty trap—people are often afraid to take risks and as a result, cling to what’s familiar. Overcoming that inertia is key.

Personally, I’ve never been limited by that kind of fear. I put that belief into practice when I disrupted my own company and dramatically restructured it. I built it once and knew I could rebuild it again, this time with new ideas and fresh perspectives.