The CEO Skill Nobody Talks About: Problem Curation

The best CEOs aren’t the ones who heroically put out fires all day.

They’re the ones who curate which fires are even worth burning for.

That’s the skill nobody talks about.

The Trap of Being a “Great Problem-Solver”

Solving problems feels productive. You get the dopamine hit. You feel in control.

But here’s the truth:

• Solving the wrong problems keeps your company small.

• Solving low-quality problems keeps you on a hamster wheel.

Low-quality problems sound like:

• “Why do we keep messing up customer orders?”

• “Why can’t we find good hires?”

• “Why is cash so tight this month?”

These are survival problems. If this is where most of your time goes, you’re not building.

You’re treading water.

The CEOs Who Scale? They Curate Better Problems

They stop trying to solve everything.

They design their company so their teams handle the solvable — and elevate the challenges only they can own.

High-quality problems sound like:

• “How do we build fulfillment that can scale 10x without breaking?”

• “How do we create a culture that people want to protect?”

• “How do we choose between three good acquisition offers?”

Your job isn’t to have no problems.

Your job is to upgrade the problem set.

How to Start Curating Problems

Here’s your quick audit:

1️⃣ Write down every problem you’ve dealt with this week.
List it all. No sugarcoating.

2️⃣ Circle the ones that keep coming back.
Those aren’t just problems — they’re signs you’re solving the wrong layer.

3️⃣ Ask: If I solved this, what better problem would replace it?
If the answer is “none”? You’re stuck on a treadmill.

Your value isn’t in how many problems you can juggle.

It’s in how high you can raise the quality of the problems your company faces.

This Week’s Challenge:

Fire yourself from one low-quality problem. Replace it with one that feels too big, too soon, too ambitious.

That’s how you build something worth leading.

— Peter