You Can’t Succeed In Life Without This Skill by Ryan Holiday reminded me of an important lesson I learned early in my career.
Make decisions fast.
Ryan uses “start the clock” and “return the ball” in his piece.
This simple act has been a competitive advantage throughout my career.
Shegun was the first one to instill this behavior in me.
Respond to emails fast.
Pay invoices immediately.
The above is easy. They’re table stakes.
The real power is making decisions fast. And the framework explained to me by Shegun was simple.
Will the decision kill you? If so, take time and think it through. If not, make the decision and move on. Most decisions can be unwound.
Ryan frames this as “start the clock.” I especially like this framing and plan to steal it. Every project has a “clock” and every project has resources (people, time, capital, etc.).
This reminds me of Jason Fried’s advice to not keep a backlog for their product(s). He applies the “start the clock” framing to their products. If the feature idea is worthy they spin up a scoping document and plan it. They “start the clock.”
This type of thinking results in speed. It’s what makes startups and growth companies powerful. It’s what makes small businesses powerful.
Large corporations add needless hurdles. They’re trying to prevent the “decisions that kill.” But they’re missing the trees for the forest. Decisions that kill businesses are few. But delaying small decisions compounds and allows startups to “eat your lunch.”
I’ve seen this far too often from market leaders who slow down too much. And they learn the hard way. Some will recover, others will close or be acquired.