Have you ever heard the story about the guy who wore the juice?
In 1995, a man robbed two banks in Pittsburgh in broad daylight. No mask. No disguise. Nothing.
Within the hour, police were at his front door.
When they arrested him, he was in total disbelief - like he’d just witnessed an impossible magic trick.
“How did you find me?” he asked.
“You were easily identified on the security cameras,” the officers replied. “You even looked right at one and smiled.”
“But I was wearing the juice!” he exclaimed.
Cue confusion and curiosity.
It turns out this man had recently discovered that lemon juice can be used as invisible ink. If you write with it on paper, it dries clear, and when you add heat the message reappears. You might have learned this in early elementary school.
Somehow this kindergarten spy technology had evaded our bank robber until he was in his forties. This late-in-life revelation sparked a breakthrough idea: if lemon juice can make writing invisible, surely it can make faces invisible too.
So, he covered his face in lemon juice, believing he was completely undetectable.
The absurdity of the story is hard to ignore. Every time I share it, I hear the same reaction:
“Woooooooooow.”
Where does such overconfidence come from? How does someone make that kind of mistake?
The Juice We All Wear
This case fascinated researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger, who studied the phenomenon and formalized what we now call the Dunning-Kruger Effect - the idea that people with low ability in a given area tend to vastly overestimate their competence.
But here’s the thing: we’re all wearing the juice, somehow.
All of us - yes, even you and me - are overconfident about something.
We assume we’re better drivers than most people, blaming bad traffic on "other idiots" while cutting someone off without realizing it.
We trust our memory as if it’s a video recording, only to be surprised when someone else remembers the same event completely differently.
We pride ourselves on multitasking - until we realize we’ve spent an hour "working" but actually just toggled between tabs, responded to texts, and forgotten what we were originally doing.
We laugh at scam victims, thinking I’d never fall for that, not realizing that scams work precisely because people don’t think they can be fooled.
We meet someone new and immediately "get a read on them," forming judgments in seconds—often based more on our own biases than reality.
Our brains are wired for certainty. They take shortcuts to make sense of the world, and those shortcuts often leave us blind to what we don’t know.
But we don’t have to stay trapped in our own illusions.
How to Avoid Wearing the Juice
There are three powerful questions that help challenge assumptions, seek broader perspectives, and test new ideas.
1. What Am I Missing?
Our brains trick us into thinking we see the full picture when, in reality, we only ever grasp a fraction of it.
This is why I love magic. A great illusion reminds us that we’re always missing something, even when we feel certain.
Making a habit of asking “What am I missing?” helps us acknowledge our cognitive blind spots and opens the door to deeper insight and better decisions.
2. What Do You See?
How many people would our lemon-faced bank robber have needed to ask before realizing his mistake?
Asking for feedback is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to avoid costly errors. Just one person can reveal what you’ve overlooked.
Soliciting perspective from others not only gives us a better understanding of the reality we're observing, but it also builds trust in teams. People love when leaders ask for their insights and opinions. It makes them feel valued and contributes to creating a space that is actually psychologically safe.
Seeking input doesn’t make you look weak or uncertain - it makes you sharper, more adaptable, and more respected.
3. What If?
This question invites play.
When we ask “What if?” we engage imagination, curiosity, and experimentation - the key ingredients for innovation.
Our misguided bank robber asked “What if lemon juice makes me invisible?” but he skipped a crucial step: testing his theory before running with it.
Innovation doesn’t just imagine possibilities - it tests them. The best breakthroughs emerge from a cycle of bold ideas and real-world feedback.
Living In•Possibility
I call these three questions the In•Possibility Framework, and they are at the heart of the work I do with leaders who want to stay on the cutting edge of growth.
Admitting that we’re always missing something isn’t a flaw. Instead it’s a great strength. It keeps us open, agile, and ready to discover new solutions.
By asking What am I missing? What do you see? and What if?, you’ll make better decisions, build stronger relationships, and create more opportunities.
And, most importantly… you’ll be less likely to walk into the bank wearing the juice.
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