A founder's retrospective analysis often reveals that delayed decisions were the correct ones, and the only regret is not acting sooner. Recognizing this pattern—that you rarely regret moving too fast—can serve as a powerful heuristic to trust your gut and accelerate decision-making, as inaction is often the biggest risk.
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For entrepreneur Emma Hernan, the fear of failure is less significant than the regret of procrastination. She advises aspiring founders that the greatest risk isn't that a venture might fail, but that it might never start. The opportunity cost of waiting is higher than the cost of a potential misstep.
To overcome analysis paralysis from a previous failure, a 48-hour deadline was set to launch a new business and earn $1 in revenue. This extreme constraint forced rapid action, leading to quick learning in e-commerce, dropshipping, and online payments, proving more valuable than months of planning.
Reflecting on Walmart's multi-year transformation, CEO Doug McMillan identifies the most common leadership pitfall: delaying actions you instinctively know are right. He advises leaders to trust their gut and move quickly, as organizations are often more capable of handling rapid change than perceived.
The best leaders act on incomplete information, understanding that 100% certainty is a myth that only exists in hindsight. The inability to decide amid ambiguity—choosing inaction—is a greater failure than making the wrong call.
The most common failure mode for a founder-CEO isn't a lack of competence, but a crisis of confidence. This leads to hesitation on critical decisions, especially firing an underperforming executive. The excuses for delaying are merely symptoms of this confidence gap.
While it's easy to regret known bad decisions, like passing on an investment, the far greater mistakes are the unseen ones. The meeting you canceled or the connection you didn't pursue could have been the pivotal moment of your career. This mindset liberates you from the fear of making visible errors and encourages action.
Agency leaders often delay decisions for fear of being wrong, creating significant opportunity costs and mental distraction. This paralysis is more damaging than the risk of an incorrect choice. Any decision is better than indecision because it provides momentum and learning, a lesson especially critical for small or solo-led agencies.
Most people let good ideas pass by. The key to becoming an effective entrepreneur is to consistently shorten the time between having an idea and taking the first small step. This builds a self-perpetuating "muscle" that generates momentum and compounds your ability to execute.
The number one reason founders fail is not a lack of competence but a crisis of confidence that leads to hesitation. They see what needs to be done but delay, bogged down by excuses. In a fast-moving environment, a smart decision made too late is no longer a smart decision.
Adopt a new operating system for decision-making. Instead of evaluating choices based on an unattainable standard of perfection, filter every action through a simple question: does this choice result in forward progress, or does it keep me in a state of inaction? This reframes the goal from perfection to momentum.
