You Can Never Move Too Slowly When You're Going in the Wrong Direction

I see this all the time - people hurrying, hurrying, hurrying. "I need to get more done. I need to be more efficient. I need to push, push, push, push, push." And they're going in the wrong direction.

When you tell them this, they say "No, look how fast I'm moving! Look at all this momentum and progress I've made." But they're still going in the wrong direction.

They are interested in the rush - the hurrying, the busyness of checking off items on a to-do list.

It's all theater - the feeling of progress, building to-do lists, having meetings. The theater of business, the theater of work. But it isn't the actual work. In fact all of it is an unconscious effort to avoid the boring necessary actual work. The actual work that is the zero to one of figuring out what the heck to even do. Being deliberate in the direction. Reinventing the wheel.

I see this with CEOs, marketing people, and salespeople. Our American hustler culture: do, do, do, do, do. We don't think enough. We don't ask "Is this the right direction or is there a better way?"

Instead we hurry, rush, stress and miss the obvious point: you can never move too slowly when you're going in the wrong direction.