I’ve screwed up a lot of tough business decisions. A lot of them.
For me at least, I think the rule I’ve realized is:
- Accelerate 90%-95% of decisions, ones that won’t kill the company
- Push down as many decisions as you can to your team, even if you are in a better position to make the call. Decision-fatigue is real. But …
- Slow down the few that really are make-or-break.
As founders, we are so overloaded with decisions, drama, crises, customer challenges, etc. that it can be hard to take a pause on the most important decisions. We end up with decision overload.
The big ones … that customer, that offer, that opportunity, that partnership, that critical hire … it will still be there next week. It really will be.
Those 2–3 critical decisions a year, go talk to your mentors. Stew it over. And probably, if these ones don’t feel right, default to No. Default to Yes on decisions you can fix, walk back, etc. (even at some cost).
But if your start-up has momentum, a good team, happy customers … i think you can default Wait a Week, and even No, on the few key decisions that can change everything.
That’s just me, though.
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