April 8th, 2020
What I've noticed about the most successful people in my life is that they move things forward, and quickly.
A story
Out of college, I worked at a startup, and I started there with a guy (my good friend) who was also right out of college.
We started at the same level, but he moved up a lot faster than me. He's now one of the biggest executives at that company, and people are always surprised when they hear how young he is.
Since I worked so closely with him, I had an "inside look" at why he rose up so quickly.
What I always remember is how he moved things forward quickly and took action.
For example, back then:
A story
Out of college, I worked at a startup, and I started there with a guy (my good friend) who was also right out of college.
We started at the same level, but he moved up a lot faster than me. He's now one of the biggest executives at that company, and people are always surprised when they hear how young he is.
Since I worked so closely with him, I had an "inside look" at why he rose up so quickly.
What I always remember is how he moved things forward quickly and took action.
For example, back then:
- when I got an email from a customer, I would "sit on it" for a little bit. Procrastinate it. Think on it. Dilly dally. Wait until I got to my computer to respond.
- when he got emails, he would immediately respond, delegate, call the right people, reply from his phone, etc.
All told, he was a very effective leader and manager. When something needed to get done, he would get it done. The company could rely on him, and over time, put a lot of trust in him.
I try to take these learnings from my startup days into my own business now. I genuinely feel like I've gotten better at taking action and making decisions - when you have your own business there's nobody to fall back on - but I think there's still a lot of room for improvement.
And it's not just this guy - when I think about other really successful people that I've worked with - this quality is always there.
If you can move things forward every day and not let fear pile things up, it's crazy how far you can get in a month, year, 5 years, and 10.
I try to take these learnings from my startup days into my own business now. I genuinely feel like I've gotten better at taking action and making decisions - when you have your own business there's nobody to fall back on - but I think there's still a lot of room for improvement.
And it's not just this guy - when I think about other really successful people that I've worked with - this quality is always there.
If you can move things forward every day and not let fear pile things up, it's crazy how far you can get in a month, year, 5 years, and 10.