I can close simple deals — why do complex ones freeze me?
You can structure a deal with two parties and clear terms without trouble. Add a third party, a fourth, conflicting conditions — and something in you stalls. You read the file again. You wait for it to become clear on its own. It will not. The stall is not proof the deal is too hard for you. It is proof you are asking yourself to do an impossible thing: see the whole structure before you have examined a single piece of it. No one does that. Not even the ones who look like they do. What is in your power is narrower and more useful: write down, one party at a time, what each one actually needs. You cannot control their positions. You can control whether you understand them, one at a time, in order.
The deal is not more complex than you — you are trying to hold every party's interest in your mind at once and calling that thinking. You cannot see a shape before you draw it. Separate the parties. Map what each one actually needs, alone, before you try to fit them together.
What changes unlock by starting
- You produce a first-pass structure for a multi-party deal without waiting for total clarity.
- You stop using complexity as a reason to delay.
- You can name, quickly, which party is actually blocking progress.
- Other parties see movement from you instead of silence.