In 2011, JCPenney brought in Ron Johnson, the retail star who had built Apple’s iconic stores. His mission was bold: stop playing the endless coupon game and replace it with “Fair and Square” everyday low pricing.

It was simple. It was elegant. It was revolutionary.

And it was a catastrophe.

October 1, 2013, was supposed to be a historic day.

Healthcare.gov would open its digital doors and allow millions of Americans to enroll in affordable health plans.

The policy was law. The demand was real. The deadline was immovable.

The site went live.

And it crashed almost immediately.

In 2007, Nokia controlled more than 40 percent of the global mobile phone market. Their devices were everywhere. They were profitable, admired, and dominant.

But just six years later, Nokia sold its entire phone business to Microsoft for a fraction of its former value.

What makes Nokia’s collapse so painful is this: they saw the future coming.

It launched with nearly $2 billion in funding. It was backed by some of the most powerful names in Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

And there’s a good chance you barely remember it.

That’s the first clue.

In just six months, the company burned through its capital and shut down, becoming the fastest $2 billion failure in entertainment history.

This is the story of Quibi.

Crafting a strategy is hard work. After investing time and energy into crafting a thoughtful plan, it can be tempting to call it done and move on. But here’s the truth: no strategy is perfect, and that’s okay.

The key to success isn’t perfection. It’s pressure-testing your strategy to refine it, uncover blind spots, and build support before execution. This step is called validation, and it’s the secret to turning good strategies into great ones.

Why Validation is Essential

Strategies created in a vacuum rarely hold up under real-world conditions. Without input from diverse perspectives, it’s too easy to miss critical risks or practical realities. That’s where validation comes in.