The Power of the Glitch

We spend so much of our lives, in work, love, and everything in between, trying to eliminate glitches.
We optimize. Patch. Perfect. Perform.
We want seamless systems, clear messaging, no room for error.

But what if the glitch isn’t the problem?
What if the glitch is the portal?

In systems theory, glitches are edge conditions. They're the signals that something doesn’t fit — that the current logic no longer holds. In branding and business, they often show up as things we’re taught to fear, like a customer complaint or a misstep in leadership.

And yet, if you zoom out, you realize: glitches reveal architecture.
They show you where your foundations are cracked — or where they’re asking to evolve.

I learned this lesson early in my career, working with Four Seasons.
I was young, a total perfectionist, and deeply concerned with getting everything right: thinking from my head, obsessing over precision, convinced a mistake meant I had failed.

But the team there taught me something magical:
A mistake isn’t the end of the story — it’s the beginning of a deeper one.
They called it a glitch.
And they treated it as a gift.

An error, they said, is a moment where something didn’t meet the guest’s needs.
That’s not a problem, it’s an opportunity.
A way to listen more deeply, understand what matters, and create a moment so thoughtful, so attuned, that it leaves a stronger emotional imprint than if things had gone flawlessly.

The glitch is where connection can deepen.
Where a sterile system becomes something human.
Where light cracks through the polish.

That cracked something open in me.

Because it’s not just systems or brands that glitch — it’s people, too.

It’s love.
It’s dating.
It’s intimacy.

And in today’s world, we are not wired to handle glitches well.

Online dating has trained us to expect endless options and effortless fits.
A little awkwardness? Next.
Miscommunication? Ghost.
Too much, too soon? Shut it down.
Not enough, fast enough? Swipe on.

We’ve come to treat connection like it should be glitch-free.
And when the inevitable misunderstanding or misfire happens, we abort the mission instead of patching the code.

But intimacy always has texture.
There will be glitches: in communication, timing, nervous systems, expectations.
Especially in the beginning, when you're still learning each other's language.

What matters is what you do after the glitch.
Do you freeze or repair?
Deflect or own your part?
Repeat the cycle or choose to rewrite it?

Glitches in love, like in business, are the places where something isn’t syncing yet.
But they can become points of profound transformation if we slow down long enough to ask:
What is this showing me?
What’s trying to come into better alignment?

They say you don’t really know someone until you break up with them.
Because the glitch — the rupture, the reveal — is where people show you how they handle pain, honesty, accountability.
It’s where the performance drops.
Where the real character, or lack of it, steps forward.
And that kind of glitch isn’t just revealing — it’s clarifying.
Not always easy, but sometimes necessary.

Sometimes the glitch is where the magic lives.
Not in the fantasy of perfect compatibility or flawless execution, but in the brave and sometimes messy act of choosing to stay.
Of getting closer through the misunderstanding, not despite it.

We’re in an era that prizes authenticity, but still worships polish.
We want brands and leaders and lovers who are real, but not too messy.
Systems that are scalable, but still personal.
Romance that feels effortless, but still electric.

The problem is: those things don’t coexist cleanly.
The friction between them? That’s the glitch.
And it’s gold, if you know how to work with it.

In the Wholeness Era, we stop trying to edit out the glitch.
We stop pretending that trust comes from perfection.
It comes from realness.
And realness always has a bit of static in the signal.

When a brand says, “We messed up. Here’s what we learned,”
or a partner says “I didn’t get that right. Can we talk about it?”
or a moment of tension becomes a deeper conversation instead of the end of the thread…

That’s not failure.
That’s integration.
That’s how you build something worth staying in.

So if something’s glitching right now,
a strategy, a conversation, a relationship, a version of yourself,

Pause.
Don’t just fix it.
Feel it.
Ask what it’s showing you.

Glitches aren’t the end.
They’re the place where the system, or the heart, gets a little more human.

And sometimes, what breaks you
is what makes you whole.