The Dependency Map

In March 2021, a ship called the Ever Given turned sideways in the Suez Canal. One vessel, one waterway, six days. Four hundred billion dollars in global trade frozen. Supply chains that looked robust revealed themselves as catastrophically fragile. Everyone knew the canal mattered. Nobody understood it was a single point of failure until the failure happened.

Most people are running their own version of this. One client generates 70% of their revenue. One skill makes them employable. One relationship holds their entire social architecture together. These look like assets. They're actually structural vulnerabilities waiting for their Ever Given moment.

The paradox of success: competence creates dependency. The better something works, the more you rely on it. The more you rely on it, the more catastrophic its failure. The freelancer with the perfect client stops looking for others. The executive with the perfect job stops maintaining outside options. The founder with the perfect cofounder stops building independent relationships. Excellence becomes fragility.