Most work does not fail because it lacks quality. It fails because it does not land.
I think about this as the 90/30 Gap.
A person can have 90% expertise. The thinking is sound. The craft is there. The intent is genuine. But what reaches other people lands at 30%, simply because the delivery is off.
Tone does not match substance. Language is rushed or unclear. Energy is defensive. The approach feels arrogant when it is really just uncalibrated communication. The signal becomes distorted, and the work is judged by what is received, not by what was meant.
This gap is not about marketing. It is about translation.
Good work needs to travel. It needs structure, sequence, and a way to arrive intact in someone else’s mind. Communication is the medium that carries expertise into the room.
Closing the 90/30 Gap is rarely about doing more. It is about adjusting how the work is expressed, so the delivery matches the depth behind it.
Because in the end, a 90% effort that lands as 30% will be treated as 30%.
And that is where good work quietly disappears.
