The Need for Speed
Some people are analytical. They tend to move slowly, crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s. Others are action-oriented. They tend to move quickly, impatient for solutions.
To grow a successful enterprise of any sort, you need both kinds of people. But in the early stages of growth, the fast movers need to take the lead.
There are good reasons for this that I discuss in some depth in Ready, Fire, Aim, my book on growing entrepreneurial businesses. But they all tie into one of my favorite themes: entropy. The moment you initiate forward progress, just about everything around you clicks into push-back mode. If you don’t press forward to accelerate your forward momentum, entropy will eat you up.
This is an easy concept for action-oriented leaders to understand. But what is sometimes not understood is that it’s never enough to do the pushing yourself. You must create a culture that supports it – a culture of Speed.
I was going to write a follow-up essay on this idea today, but then I saw the following from Craig Ballantyne, the man that took over Early to Rise as partner and editor-in-chief 10 years ago…
I just hosted another epic mastermind a couple weeks back… our best one yet, and attendees seemed to agree…
[There] was ONE common theme that kept emerging…
SPEED.
Whether it’s making a fast judgement call in order to quickly move to the next phase of your project…
Jumping on a market or idea quickly, thereby beating your competition to the punch…
Or just rapidly growing your business to reach your goals in less time…
Speed is so frequently the answer to your problems.
Craig then listed 3 “fast hacks,” as he calls them, to help his clients create a culture of speed when their businesses need it…
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- Make sales your TOP priority
This is one of the most important lessons from my mentor Mark Ford…
He impressed upon me that sales is the driving force of your business…
Especially in the early stage.
Therefore…
You should spend 80% of your time driving sales and marketing efforts.
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- Fail faster
No matter how you slice it, failure is part of the process…
… another concept Ford addresses in his book Ready, Fire, Aim
(strongly suggested reading material)
And by accelerating failure, we also accelerate success.
However, failing faster alone is not enough.
We must be sure to learn from these mistakes in order to become more efficient over time.
An objective best served by:
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- A)An attitude that it’s okay to fail.
Not the primary goal. But realizing it’s expected and okay when it happens.
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- B) A culture of learning and open discussion of failed attempts.
For example…
Failed marketing attempts should be analyzed against successful ones to gain insights for future efforts.
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- Get out of your head and into the game
Stop questioning, second guessing, over analyzing, and essentially paralyzing yourself with perfectionism.
There’s a reason you’re where you are today, doing what you’re doing…
Trust yourself.
Stop driving with one foot on the brake and just do what you think is right…
You’ll find your instincts are often right.
And the wins you do get by seizing opportunities immediately will far outweigh the losses.
Plus if you do fail… (refer to #2)
So remember…
When it comes to progress… SPEED is the answer.
And through focused attention on seemingly simple ideas like these…
You’ll be able to scale your business in a fraction of the time you’d originally anticipated.
