The Kid Who Told The Ocean “Not Today”
The Solution Mindset: What a 16-Year-Old Surfer Taught Me About “Just Start”
It was one of those nights when doubt feels heavier than gravity. I sat at my desk in the dark, staring at an email I had rewritten a dozen times. It was an invitation to collaborate on something big, something that could shift the trajectory of the podcast and the movement we’re building. My cursor blinked over “send,” but the voice in my head, the one that never sleeps, was relentless.
You’re not ready yet. The idea isn’t polished enough. What if they see through the confidence and realize you’re still figuring it out?
I knew that voice well. It’s the same one that shows up before every meaningful risk, dressed as caution but functioning as paralysis.
In that exact moment, Nir Bashan’s words from Episode 706 of Passion Struck came flooding back. He calls it the solution mindset: the disciplined shift from waiting for perfect conditions to activating the ten innate problem-solving superpowers we all carry inside us.
When a 16-Year-Old Surfer Discovered the Solution Mindset in a Dying Reef
Then I thought of Titouan Bernicot.
He was sixteen when he dove into the waters off Mo’orea and saw the reef he had surfed his whole life reduced to bone-white skeletons. The vibrant ecosystem that had shaped his childhood was dying, and the adults around him spoke of it in terms of decades-long timelines, advanced degrees, and international funding. The message was clear: this problem is too vast for someone like you.
Most people would have accepted that verdict. Titouan did not. He went home, gathered broken coral fragments, tied them to ropes, and began planting them in underwater nurseries. The first attempts failed. Corals died. Methods proved inadequate. He adjusted, experimented again, and kept going. Today, Coral Gardeners is the world’s leading coral restoration organization. They have planted hundreds of thousands of corals, established nurseries across the globe, and inspired a movement followed by millions. Some of the experts who once told him he needed more credentials now collaborate with his team.
That story is not about extraordinary talent. It is about refusing to let “too big” or “too soon” have the final word.
It is also the perfect entry point into what Nir Bashan explores in his new book, The Solution Mindset: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving, releasing December 31, 2025, from Wiley. In Episode 706 of Passion Struck, Nir explains why creativity alone leaves most of us stuck. We get the spark, the exciting idea, the moment of inspiration, but then we stall between vision and reality. His new work provides the bridge: a repeatable framework built on ten innate problem-solving superpowers we all possess but rarely use.
Nir has spent his career alongside Hollywood creators, Microsoft and AT&T executives, and leaders seeking breakthrough thinking. His first book, The Creator Mindset, helped people rediscover imagination. The question he heard most often afterward was urgent and straightforward: “Great, I have the creative idea, now how do I actually solve the problem?” The Solution Mindset answers that by studying real-world examples of people who moved from stuck to solved.
From Paralyzing Doubt to the Solution Mindset: One Small Step That Changes Everything
One of my favorite stories from the conversation involves VanMoof, a premium bicycle company based in the Netherlands. They crafted beautiful, high-end bikes that customers loved, until the packages arrived. Up to twenty-five percent of shipments arrived damaged: bent frames, scratched components, and frustrated buyers. The team tried everything logical, more padding, larger boxes, and different carriers. Costs rose, but results stayed flat.
Then, during a short fifteen-minute meeting dedicated to “silly ideas,” someone proposed printing a large image of a flat-screen television on the outside of the box. Warehouse handlers and delivery drivers suddenly treated the packages with far more care, assuming they contained fragile electronics. Shipping damage fell by seventy to eighty percent almost immediately. A slight, playful shift in perspective saved millions and preserved customer trust.
Nir also takes us to Norway’s prison system, which challenges everything we think we know about justice. Rather than warehouses of punishment, Norwegian facilities resemble small communities with private rooms, shared kitchens, education programs, and job training. Guards are unarmed and trained in conflict resolution. The focus is rehabilitation, not retribution. The outcome is staggering: recidivism rates around twenty percent, the lowest in the world, compared to roughly seventy percent in the United States. By choosing to “fail successfully,” treating people as capable of growth rather than permanent threats, Norway created safer communities and lower long-term costs.
Another example of sustained commitment comes from bourbon distillers. Companies like Kentucky Owl fill barrels today, knowing the whiskey inside may not be bottled for twenty or thirty years. The people crafting it will likely never taste the final product. Their work is an act of faith in routine, quality, and legacy over immediate reward. Similarly, responsible forestry companies plant trees they will never harvest, rotating land to preserve soil fertility for generations.
Even Japan’s postwar healthcare system offers a lesson in cutting through complexity. In the chaotic rebuilding years, bureaucracy threatened to stall progress. Leadership was dramatically simplified: they established a national fee schedule with a single fixed price for each medical procedure, regardless of hospital location or prestige. That foundational clarity evolved into today’s universal system, where costs remain predictable and controlled.
What unites these stories is a quiet but powerful truth: problems remain unsolvable only until someone approaches them differently. We default to overthinking, waiting for perfect conditions, or assuming the challenge requires credentials we lack. Yet every breakthrough Nir shares began with a small, imperfect action—a teenager planting coral, a team sketching a television on cardboard, reformers questioning the purpose of punishment.
The solution mindset is not reserved for prodigies or massive budgets. These ten superpowers are wired into all of us. Positivity becomes strategic fuel, carrying us through setbacks. Simple filters untangle overwhelming complexity. Long-term routines compound into results we cannot see today. Embracing failure as information rather than a verdict opens new paths.
In a moment when the world feels saturated with intractable issues, climate collapse, polarized societies, and personal burnout, Nir’s message lands with particular force. Every problem humans have created, humans can solve, not through endless contingency planning or reactive fixes, but through disciplined, creative engagement applied consistently.
That night at my desk, I finally hit send on the email. The response came faster than expected, and it was a yes. Nothing catastrophic happened. The doubt quieted, at least for a while.
The gap between stuck and moving forward is often smaller than it feels. One experiment. One adjustment. One decision to begin before feeling fully ready.
What problem in your life or work feels too vast right now? What small, imperfect step could you take this week, not when conditions are perfect, but today?
The reef was dying. The bikes kept breaking. The systems kept failing.
Until someone decided to start anyway.
