--- title: How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/ author: Michelle Peng article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-07-12T10:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-10T21:11:53.318Z og:title: How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8fa9481333328e/6a515f899932765bddf45f48/charter-epstein.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: charter-epstein.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8fa9481333328e/6a515f899932765bddf45f48/charter-epstein.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [creativity](/partner-content/charter/tag/creativity/) ## creativity # How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Jul 12, 2026 10:30 AM UTC  Art: Charter  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) Jul 12, 2026 10:30 AM UTC What do Lionel Messi and a NASA lunar mission have in common? Both appear to defy the laws of physics and send projectiles hurtling through space. But they also both successfully use constraints to their advantage, according to [David Epstein](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-epstein-5a37ba25), author of the recent book, [_Inside the Box._](https://bookshop.org/a/664/9780593715710) While many workers currently chafe against budget cuts, looming layoffs, and pressures to adapt to new AI technology, some limitations may actually be a blessing in disguise. Our brains need constraints to be creative, argues Epstein, a former sports journalist and author of two previous books, [_Range_](https://bookshop.org/a/664/9780735214507)and [_The Sports Gene_](https://bookshop.org/a/664/9781617230127). Humans are wired to conserve our limited mental capacity by finding shortcuts, familiar solutions, and convenient answers. “The best way to prompt creative problem solving is actually to take away that easiest path,” he tells Charter. Ahead of the World Cup’s round-of-16 matches, we spoke with Epstein about _Inside the Box_, what elite athletes can teach us about constraints, and how leaders and teams can use limitations to propel high performance. Here are excerpts from our conversation, edited for length and clarity: Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). **What can we learn about using constraints to our advantage in this huge summer of sports, from the Knicks’ NBA championship to the ongoing World Cup?** The constraint-led approach has actually been around for decades, but it's having a public moment because Victor Wenbanyama and Shohei Ohtani and Kelsey Plum all [spoke about it publicly](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6665943/2025/09/29/sports-training-cla-coaching-wembanyana-ohtani/). The idea is that the coach or teacher is this environment architect, where instead of telling you how to do something, they set up the ground that forces you to experiment. Elements of the constraints-led approach are everywhere in the World Cup. The large majority of the greatest players in the world—Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar—mostly grew up playing futsal, a game where the ball is about half the size and twice the weight. The area you play on is much smaller. Because the ball's heavier, it stays on the ground, so you can't really kick it way downfield. It's kind of like soccer in a phone booth. Because it's so small, nobody's running downfield. Everyone's around having to make decisions really quickly. People touch the ball about six times more per minute on average compared to normal soccer. Compressing the game is what forces people to come up with these strategies, producing really creative ball handlers. **What might that approach look like in a typical white-collar workplace?** Part of the lesson is to compress whatever it is you're doing. Give yourself \[fewer words\] to write the thing you have to write. Give yourself half the time and see what happens. Humans have this bias called additive bias that we always want more time, more resources, more features. One of my favorite writers, Derek Thompson, told me that before he writes a long article, he forces himself to write the tweet \[he’ll post about the article\]. For my book, I forced myself to outline it on one page and one page only. It made me ruthlessly prioritize, and that was immensely clarifying. It helped me execute much more quickly because it gave me a lot more clarity to actually get the thing done. [Ed Hoffman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/edhoffman16), who was the first chief knowledge officer at NASA…told me about a \[lunar\] mission where the engineers ended up with half the time and budget they wanted. They had to borrow technology. They took imaging equipment straight from army tanks and engine temperature sensors right out of NASCAR, and they built the probe that confirmed water on the moon. To him, the lesson was they never would've done this if they had had unlimited time and resources. **You note that some constraints are forced upon you and some you actively choose. How can leaders use both to help their teams improve?** I followed around one CEO who used the exercise called ‘the legacy constraint.’ He would take his team and say, ‘Pretend that we are going out of business in two years. Nobody knows it but us. What would we do differently?’ Immediately, people started saying, ‘Well, I would stop spending time on X and I would focus on Y because that's where the real value is.’ \[Going out of business\] is a constraint that’s forced upon people, but this exercise put the team in the mindset where they could play a voluntary role and help design the changes. There's some leadership art to that because oftentimes, people will see constraints as punishment. But to some degree, whether a constraint is self-imposed or externally imposed, there’s an opportunity to clarify priorities and experiment. **Order** **_Inside the Box_** **on** [**Amazon**](https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Box-Constraints-Make-Better/dp/0593715713) **or** [**Bookshop**](https://bookshop.org/a/664/9780593715710)**.** **Watch “Creativity under pressure: What works when constraints close in,” a** [**session**](https://www.charterworks.com/creativity-under-pressure-what-works-when-constraints-close-in/) **from Charter’s New Employer Brand Summit.** --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: Why Teams Should Approach Innovation Like an Archeological Dig](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7340616/why-teams-should-approach-innovation-like-an-archeological-dig/)  ### Why Teams Should Approach Innovation Like an Archeological Dig [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7340616/why-teams-should-approach-innovation-like-an-archeological-dig/) [Open article: The Most Inspiring People and Places of My 2023](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6548940/the-most-inspiring-people-and-places-of-my-2023/)  ### The Most Inspiring People and Places of My 2023 [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6548940/the-most-inspiring-people-and-places-of-my-2023/) [Open article: The Best Digital Brainstorming Tools](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6283646/the-best-digital-brainstorming-tools/)  ### The Best Digital Brainstorming Tools [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6283646/the-best-digital-brainstorming-tools/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/"},"headline":"How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less","datePublished":"2026-07-12T10:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-10T21:11:53.318Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8fa9481333328e/6a515f899932765bddf45f48/charter-epstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Peng","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8fa9481333328e/6a515f899932765bddf45f48/charter-epstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-epstein.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Art: Charter","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/how-phone-booth-soccer-taught-world-cup-greats-to-achieve-more-with-less/","name":"How 'Phone Booth' Soccer Taught World Cup Greats to Achieve More With Less"}}]}] ```