The Amber Light Strategy: Why Ambiguity Is Where Real Change Lives
A conversation with Sasha McFarlane about non-linear paths, systems thinking, and moving through discomfort.
I was listening to my interview with Sasha McFarlane again, the one I just released, and I found myself pausing, rethinking, taking notes. One phrase kept echoing:
“The more you move, the more likely you are to find green lights.”
But here’s the part nobody talks about: you have to be willing to move through the amber lights first. And most of us were raised to stop at amber.
Meet Sasha
Sasha McFarlane was born in Scotland, raised across Hong Kong and the US, and spent 15 years building a career in global fashion. But somewhere along the way, she became obsessed with a different question: How does real, lasting change actually happen?
Today, she’s the founder of Future-Proof Fashion and a researcher obsessed with systems thinking, behavioral economics, and complexity science. She’s asking why the fashion industry (and every industry) is built on old patterns. And more importantly, how we move beyond them.
Our paths rhyme in ways I didn’t expect. We both came to systems thinking slowly. We both questioned the traditional pathway. We both gave ourselves permission to start over, carrying everything we learned into something new.
And we both believe the same thing: you don’t have to fit the mold to leave a mark.
What stayed with me
After listening to this conversation for the third time, here is what stayed with me:
1. The amber light strategy is how real change happens. Sasha talks about movement as the way to catch green lights. You can’t find them if you’re stationary. But here’s what most people miss: to get to green, you have to move through amber. Amber is ambiguity. It’s discomfort. It’s the unknown. It’s saying “I don’t know” in a corporate world that teaches you to always have the answer. It’s being willing to be a beginner, to be vulnerable, to move through uncertainty until something meaningful starts to take shape.
Most of us were raised to fear amber. We were taught that ambiguity equals failure. That not knowing equals weakness. That the “right” path is clear, linear, mapped out from the beginning. Sasha flipped that script. She said: Stagnation is the real red light. Movement even through discomfort is how you find what matters.
2. Vulnerability isn’t a weakness in innovation. It’s a requirement. In corporate spaces, there’s an unspoken rule: never let them see you don’t know something. Never admit you’re a beginner. Never show the cracks. It’s seen as unprofessional. As risky. But Sasha calls it differently. Vulnerability is a skill. Not a liability. A skill.
And when you look at the people who actually create real change, real innovation, real impact? They’re the ones willing to say “I don’t know” and move forward anyway. They’re the ones curious enough to ask questions that expose their own gaps. They’re the ones who can be learners, explorers, beginners even after decades of expertise.That’s not weakness. That’s the deepest kind of strength.
3. Your non-linear path is evidence you were paying attention. Near the end of our conversation, Sasha said something I’m still turning over: “Non-traditional pathways leak really exciting things.” I love that word: leak. As if all the innovation, all the real breakthroughs, all the meaningful work is happening outside the official channels. Outside the straight lines. Outside the systems that were designed decades ago for a world that no longer exists.
Her path leaked innovation. Mine leaked clarity about what actually matters. Your path whatever shape it takes is probably leaking something the world needs.
But only if you stop apologizing for it.
My reflections
What strikes me most about Sasha’s journey is how intentional she’s become about systems thinking but how unintentional it all was at first.
She wasn’t trying to build a non-linear career. She was just following what made sense at each moment. Watching her father build supply chains. Growing up across different cultures. Questioning the “standard pathway” in the US school system. Building in fashion. Realizing the systems underneath mattered more than the products.
Each step wasn’t part of a grand plan. It was just the next honest move.
And that’s what I think we’re all missing. We’re so focused on the perfect 5-year plan, the linear trajectory, the “right” answer, that we forget: sometimes the green lights only appear when you’re willing to move without a map.
When you’re willing to move through amber.
The amber light strategy isn’t about recklessness. It’s about intelligent movement. It’s about understanding that clarity doesn’t come before you move, it comes after you’ve moved through the discomfort, asked the questions, admitted you don’t know.
It’s about being okay with becoming instead of being.
And that shift? It changes everything.
A question or maybe three today for you
What’s one area of your life where you’re waiting for perfect clarity instead of moving?
Where are you stopped at amber, afraid to move forward until you can see the whole path?
What would change if you decided that moving through the uncertainty with vulnerability, curiosity, and willingness to be wrong was actually the strategy?
I’d love to hear. Reply in the comments or reach out. I’m collecting these stories.
It does not cost you anything to share. And sharing is caring!
Until next time, gorgeous: keep moving. Keep questioning. Keep being brave enough to not fit the mold. Your non-linear path isn’t a failure. It’s evidence that you’re paying attention.
And the world needs that.
See you in the next one,
Cris