Stop Overthinking: The 70% Rule to Beat Procrastination

0:00 You've had a decision sitting on your desk for 2 weeks.

0:02 You keep telling yourself you're just like gathering information.

0:05 You're not.

0:06 You're stalling.

0:06 And while you stall,

0:08 someone less qualified just did a worse version of your idea,

0:12 and they are about to eat your lunch.

0:14 People like me.

0:15 Here's the lesson history keeps screaming at us.

0:18 Speed wins every time.

0:20 And I am obsessed with it right now because

0:23 I and my team are not moving fast enough.

0:26 So today, we're going to talk about speed.

0:27 The three laws that will rewire how you make decisions,

0:31 five moves that you can run Monday morning,

0:32 and we're going to show you the real-life proof from Instagram,

0:35 Square, Amazon, the fastest companies in the world about

0:38 how the operator almost always wins when they move faster.

0:42 You do not have to be smarter.

0:43 You don't have to have more money.

0:44 You just need to move faster.

0:46 So today, you stop overthinking and you start moving.

0:48 [music] I'm Cody Sanchez, and this is The Big Deal podcast.

0:51 Let's hurry up and go, huh?

0:56 I have one quick ask though before we dive in.

0:58 If this kind of episode is useful for you,

1:00 do me a personal favor and hit subscribe.

1:02 It tells me what's landing and helps me make more of what actually helps you.

1:06 And if you ever wanted to support what we do here at The Big Deal,

1:09 this is the best way.

1:10 So hit subscribe.

1:11 Thank you so much.

1:12 Let's dive in.

1:14 All right.

1:14 We've been taught that slow is safe.

1:16 Like, you know, the sayings.

1:17 Measure twice, cut once.

1:19 Good things take time.

1:20 Patience is a virtue.

1:22 All of that is true, I guess somewhere,

1:24 but almost none of it is true in business or in your career.

1:27 To be clear, speed isn't the same as recklessness.

1:31 Recklessness is like, you go really fast, you ignore all the consequences.

1:34 Speed is just compressing the distance between you and reality.

1:37 And also, can we just stop comparing the two?

1:40 Like, isn't that crazy?

1:41 Why does our brain immediately go, "But if I'm fast,

1:44 I can't be good." That is so dumb.

1:46 Usain Bolt, really[ __] fast, really good.

1:50 So when you move fast,

1:51 it's not that you don't avoid mistakes, you just find them faster.

1:54 So then you fix them faster,

1:55 then you learn them faster, and it is a dangerous loop.

1:58 When you move slowly and with too much care,

2:01 you actually don't even see the future

2:03 as fast as the person sitting next to you.

2:05 And so like, my real-life story this AM,

2:08 I got really frustrated that our newsletters

2:09 were taking days to write at my company.

2:12 So on Sunday, I was like, "Fuck it.

2:13 I'm going to do this live." And I set a time limit,

2:16 and I wrote two newsletters in under an hour using

2:18 an agent that is better than most of what we write.

2:21 And I did it because I was so fed up with the time we're wasting,

2:25 just like mentally masturbating over nothing.

2:28 And then I sent it to my newsletter writers.

2:30 Sorry, guys.

2:31 And I told them, "This is the new standard.

2:33 Like, we should have a V1 in under an hour,

2:35 and then we can have multiple shots on goal,

2:37 like multiple trials of a newsletter.

2:39 This idea of waiting days for something that is

2:41 less than 3,000 words and basically dead is over.

2:46 That is why I'm doing this podcast today.

2:48 It's for you, but it's also for me.

2:50 It's also for my team, and also for all of us to make more money.

2:53 So I want you to think about it like this.

2:55 Every decision you face has a shelf life.

2:57 The information you have on it is super fresh right now, right?

3:01 Your conviction strong today.

3:03 The opportunity most available today.

3:06 Every day you wait, three really scary things happen at the same time,

3:10 and they happen invisibly.

3:12 One, your data ages.

3:14 Meaning, like the context you're deciding in is

3:17 already different tomorrow than it was today.

3:19 So you think you're like gathering information,

3:21 but actually you're watching that bread go stale.

3:24 Number two, your conviction starts to erode.

3:27 Like, your certainty peaks at the moment

3:29 you first see the problem clearly, right?

3:32 And every time you re-review the option,

3:34 like you give yourself little chances for doubt.

3:36 By week two or three,

3:38 the decision actually feels harder than day one because your brain has

3:41 literally beaten itself into a fog and given it lots of different options.

3:45 And by three, your window closes.

3:46 Other people are moving, teams are shipping.

3:49 So every day you wait, a competitor, a customer,

3:51 or a market condition gets closer to making the decision for you.

3:54 Not good.

3:56 So what's the takeaway here?

3:57 Is that you eat the fruit when it's the freshest.

4:00 Moving quickly means going through the Overton window while

4:03 your conviction is high and your data is relevant, so you run, you don't walk.

4:08 Information doesn't age like wine, it ages like milk, which ain't good.

4:13 So here's the tool that I use, so you can steal it.

4:15 I call it the decay question.

4:17 For any major decision you put across your plate, ask yourself,

4:20 "Is what I learn in the next 30 days

4:21 worth more than what I lose by not starting?" Answer,

4:25 nine times out of 10, is[ __] no.

4:28 For 90% of decisions, the honest answer is no.

4:31 And the 10% where the answer is yes,

4:34 you're dealing with a genuine one-way door, and you should take your time.

4:37 I'm going to get to that in a minute.

4:38 It's one of my favorite stories of all ti-

4:40 of all time from one of my favorite entrepreneurs.

4:42 But I actually want to take you back in time first.

4:45 To a guy by the name of Jim McKelvey in St.

4:47 Louis in 2009, who almost sold a $2,000 piece of art at an art fair.

4:53 The buyer was ready.

4:55 He wo- He had the money.

4:56 But McKelvey, the glassblower, he couldn't take it.

4:59 You see, he was an artisan, not a shop with a full point-of-sale system.

5:03 And at that time, that meant his customers

5:06 had to pay in cash or walk away empty-handed.

5:09 So he lost the sale.

5:10 McKelvey was pissed, right?

5:13 So he called his friend Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter,

5:16 who had interned for him actually as a teenager,

5:18 to rant about this thousands lost.

5:21 And Dorsey said, "Uh why don't we just fix that?" Three weeks later,

5:26 three weeks, people,

5:28 they had a working credit card reader that plugged into an iPhone,

5:31 and that simple product launched the company Square.

5:34 After seeing all the success that Square had, Amazon, big baby Amazon,

5:38 they launched a competitive uh product called uh like Amazon Local Register.

5:43 It's a mobile credit card reader for small businesses,

5:45 and it would had lower fees.

5:46 So it was way cheaper.

5:48 It's backed by a hundred billion-dollar Bezos with the brightest minds in tech.

5:53 And less than a year later,

5:54 Amazon realized Square's lead was going to be impossible to catch

5:57 up to, so it quietly shut down Amazon Local Register.

6:01 What was the lesson?

6:03 Square won because they pounced on the market

6:06 years earlier when conviction was high.

6:08 McKelvey missed his sale.

6:09 Data was relevant.

6:10 McKelvey had no way of accepting credit cards at that moment,

6:13 and the window was open.

6:15 There was no point-of-sale system options for a small sole proprietor.

6:18 They moved fast, so they won.

6:21 So, if you're currently sitting on a decision

6:23 about a change in market, maybe it's AI,

6:25 a new competitor, or a shift in your customer's behavior,

6:28 you don't have more time than you think.

6:30 You have less.

6:31 Fact, I just got in a little scuffle

6:34 with one of my team members about that this morning.

6:37 I have a rule.

6:38 It's called the 24-hour rule.

6:40 And now I think it's even a shorter rule.

6:41 It might be the two-hour rule now.

6:43 But the rule is, when you meet

6:44 with somebody that you want something from, you should

6:46 overwhelm them with the speed at which you

6:48 respond back after the meeting with something impressive.

6:51 So we had just met with these investors.

6:53 And the investors that we met with were going

6:55 to give us millions of dollars in one of our companies.

6:58 And I got pissed because it was Friday afternoon.

7:01 Friday evening.

7:02 Do you think we got that response out to them that day?

7:05 Uh-uh.

7:06 We did not.

7:07 So guess what happened?

7:08 They beat us to it on Monday.

7:10 And what happens when you do that?

7:11 You show them that they move faster than you do.

7:14 I hate that.

7:16 So I want you to be like Square.

7:17 When you see an opportunity, don't hesitate.

7:19 Go.

7:20 Like, real-life Slack that inspired this podcast today,

7:24 my team said they would get back to me in a week.

7:26 And uh this is it's this.

7:29 If you're on YouTube, you can see it right now.

7:30 Also, hi YouTube.

7:31 Like and subscribe.

7:32 I just sent this out to this team as I

7:33 was reviewing what I wanted to talk to you guys about.

7:36 And and basically what it says here is, "No, no, no.

7:39 Don't wait a week.

7:40 Let's spin this up in 24 hours and see if anyone bites.

7:43 If they do, we'll build it." Which basically means we don't have a product.

7:46 We're not ready actually to launch this, but I want to spin it up,

7:49 see if we can get credit cards,

7:50 and if we can't, we're going to launch it, and then we'll figure it out.

7:53 We'll build the airplane on the way down.

7:55 That's how you should work in this world today.

7:57 Otherwise, you're, as the kids say, neg me.

8:00 Not not going to make it.

8:01 And you know, it's not just these stories from me or Square, you know,

8:05 uh I I I I I this story is so good, I don't think it's told enough.

8:09 So in 2010, there's this guy by the name of Kevin Systrom,

8:13 and he had a dying check-in app called Burbn.

8:16 Like, it wasn't going to make it.

8:17 It had like a hundred users, half a million bucks of VC money in the bank,

8:21 and a product that uh apparently nobody wanted.

8:23 But when Systrom looked at the data, he noticed that users,

8:26 that is a hundred of them, loved Burbn's creative photo posting functions.

8:31 So he pivoted.

8:32 He got rid of check-ins, and he kept the photos.

8:35 And he bre- rebranded as Instagram.

8:37 Instagram launches in like October of 2010, and the response is insane.

8:42 18 months later, Facebook pays a billy for them,

8:45 and only 13 employees are on the payroll at that time, which is wild.

8:49 We have like a hundred employees, just so you know.

8:51 And sadly, I'm not quite a billion dollars yet.

8:54 But here's the here's the key takeaway.

8:56 It's not just that they pivoted.

8:58 People do that all the time.

8:59 It's that they moved fast.

9:01 Like, every competitor in photo sharing was still running

9:04 road map reviews while Instagram was live and growing.

9:08 So Systrom didn't have better data than his competitors.

9:11 He just acted while the data was still fresh.

9:14 So don't let yourself get pulled into decision

9:16 decay because decision decay is the why.

9:20 So now you need two rules for the how, and I want to steal these from like one

9:23 of the best of on- entrepreneurs of all time, whether you like him or hate him.

9:26 It's the bald man himself, Jeff Bezos.

9:29 And rule number one is the 70% rule.

9:32 So in his shareholder letters, which are amazing,

9:34 he has one in particular from 2016,

9:36 and he talks about that most decisions should be

9:39 made with 70% of the information you wish you had.

9:42 If you wait for 90, you're too slow.

9:44 And in most cases, slow is more expensive than wrong.

9:47 And so why 70?

9:49 Because in Bezos's eyes,

9:50 the last 30% of the information is always really expensive to get, right?

9:55 Like you're like, "Huh,

9:55 when I have more of that when I when I can figure that all out." No, no, no.

9:58 The first 70% comes fast fast.

10:01 So, ask yourself, am I at 70%?

10:03 If yes, move.

10:05 And then correct once you're in motion.

10:07 The second one is called the the the door test.

10:11 And I love this idea so much.

10:13 I use it all the time.

10:14 I think my husband actually introduced me to it first.

10:18 He'll say to me, "Is this a one-way or a two-way door?" What does that mean?

10:21 Every decision is one of two types.

10:23 A one-way door is reversible.

10:25 Selling your company?

10:26 Firing a senior employee?

10:29 Committing capital you can't get back?

10:31 Those deserve care.

10:32 Like the door only opens one way.

10:34 You can't go back through it.

10:36 Does that make sense?

10:37 Whereas like a two-way door is reversible.

10:39 You walk through it, look around, and then you go, "I don't like this place.

10:42 Next bar." Right?

10:43 So, that might be something like testing a price,

10:46 hiring a new contractor, posting something publicly.

10:50 The 2016 letter basically says, you should make these moves fast.

10:54 By high-judgment people, and don't use a[ __] committee.

10:58 Committees are where dreams go to die.

11:00 The smaller the group of people, the better.

11:01 In fact, Shopify famously works in teams of five.

11:05 They say the best teams are all five.

11:06 And so, they have like a 3,300,

11:09 I believe, uh R&D research and development group.

11:13 And even in there, they have teams of five inside of the 3,300s.

11:17 So, most organizations fall into something where

11:20 they treat every decision like a one-way door.

11:22 And you probably do this in your life, too.

11:24 You're like, "Well, I don't know.

11:26 Should I go to this event?

11:27 I can't decide." It's like, what's the problem if you decide later?

11:30 You know, "Oh, I don't know.

11:32 You know, should my kids and I go on vacation here and there?

11:34 I don't know.

11:35 Can we make that Is that like

11:36 a life-changing decision or not?" Like how many low-level

11:39 decisions do we make every single day

11:40 that we treat like one-way doors and they aren't?

11:44 So, do an audit tonight.

11:45 Look at your five most stuck decisions.

11:47 Probably at least three of them are two-way doors.

11:49 So, walk through, baby.

11:51 Stop treating it like you can't go back.

11:53 And the the research is actually really on his side.

11:56 Um there's actually a really fascinating phenomenon.

11:59 I believe it's called the Zeigarnik effect.

12:01 I don't know.

12:02 You guys tell me if I'm spelling that or saying that right on the internet.

12:04 But this shows how unfinished tasks occupy disproportionate mental bandwidth.

12:10 Like you know what I'm talking about, right?

12:12 Like your brain hates that open loop that you like,

12:15 "Oh, did I My mom's kind of famous for this one.

12:17 Sorry, Mom." She every time we leave the house, I swear to Christ.

12:20 I'm I'm 39 years old.

12:21 Every time we leave the house, she goes, "Did I unplug the curling iron?

12:25 Did we shut the garage door?" It's like is looping every time.

12:29 And those small decisions, they eat away at your cognitive power.

12:33 So, if you've been feeling foggy, scattered, and drained,

12:36 look at your decisions and and close those loops.

12:38 And you know, while we're being honest

12:40 about what's actually draining your cognitive performance,

12:42 let's talk about the one thing that sits underneath all of it.

12:44 The thing that makes the 70% rule possible,

12:47 that makes fast, high-conviction decisions

12:50 feel natural instead of terrifying, sleep.

12:52 Specifically deep sleep.

12:54 That's why I am obsessed with Eight Sleep, and I use it.

12:57 The Eight Sleep Pod is a smart cover that goes on your existing mattress.

13:01 It heats or cools each side independently down to 55° all night automatically.

13:06 And as we move into spring and nights start heating up,

13:08 this becomes the single biggest lever of your sleep quality.

13:11 Especially because I like it warm, and my husband likes it like an icicle.

13:15 I'm not okay with that.

13:17 So, for every degree your sleep environment

13:19 rises above what your body optimally needs, you actually lose deep sleep.

13:24 So, the pod eliminates that variable entirely.

13:27 This is crazy, actually, but users see up to 34% more deep sleep,

13:31 fall asleep up to 44% faster,

13:34 and have an HRV I'm too fancy but for that, but that basically

13:37 means you're your heart rate up 13% on average,

13:41 which the doctors tell me is very good.

13:43 And it tracks all of it.

13:44 Heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep stages.

13:46 No wearable, nothing on your wrist.

13:48 Clinical-grade accuracy built directly into your bed.

13:51 The AI behind it, Autopilot, learns your patterns and adjusts in real time.

13:56 The Aston Martin F1 team uses it for athlete recovery.

13:59 You know, just like me.

14:00 We're pretty much the same.

14:01 I mean, so does you know, people much smarter than me.

14:03 Andrew Huberman, Mark Zuckerberg.

14:05 These are people who've optimized everything, and they still made room for this.

14:09 So, you can use code deal at eightsleep.com/bigdeal

14:12 for up to 350 bucks off the pod.

14:15 You get 30 days to try it at home.

14:17 And if you don't like it, you can send it back.

14:19 Go to eightsleep.com/bigdeal code deal,

14:23 because I'm pretty positive I've never had a single person

14:26 on this pod who's ever bought this thing that sent it back.

14:29 In fact, all of my friends wait for me to get the deal,

14:32 and then they buy it for them and all the beds in their house.

14:35 So, you're welcome.

14:37 This is one of my favorite things for sleep that exists in the world.

14:40 Just ask ask hus- husband, Chris.

14:42 Um okay.

14:43 So, I I actually want to also talk about a second study.

14:46 So, the the 2000 Columbia jam experiment.

14:50 So, what is this?

14:52 It's fascinating.

14:53 Two two psychologists set up two jam booths at a grocery store.

14:57 One booth I need a jam like jam, jelly.

14:59 One booth had 24 varieties of jam.

15:01 And the other had six varieties of jam.

15:04 The 24 jam booth pulled in way more traffic.

15:07 Wow, look at all these things.

15:09 But only 3% of people who tasted it actually bought.

15:12 The six jam booth, well, 30% of the people who walked up, they bought.

15:16 That's 10 times higher.

15:18 And that proves that analysis paralysis is real and measurable.

15:23 So, when you keep every option open,

15:25 your conversion rate on actually executing collapses.

15:29 Moving fast forces you to cut options.

15:31 Cutting options is how you reach action.

15:34 So, the research all kind of comes together on one conclusion.

15:38 Commit to constraints.

15:40 Like if you can just reduce your choices and make those decisions,

15:43 watch how your life improves.

15:45 And I can tell you firsthand cuz I do it, too.

15:48 Um there's also still maybe one lingering barrier, perfection.

15:52 And the objection I hear the most is something along the lines,

15:56 and tell me if you feel this, or you can

15:57 write in the comments what your objection is to moving fast.

16:01 If I move fast, quality suffers, right?

16:05 That's actually what we call a false dichotomy.

16:08 Two things do not need to be true.

16:10 So, let's reframe that.

16:12 Quality and speed aren't opposites.

16:14 Perfection and speed are.

16:17 Quality means the output works.

16:19 Your customer's happy.

16:21 The dinner's good enough.

16:22 You know, the outfit's good enough.

16:24 The workout's good enough.

16:26 The problem's solved.

16:27 You've moved forward.

16:28 I think a lot of times we just get obsessed with perfection.

16:32 And like, can we have zero flaws?

16:34 I don't know.

16:34 I've never met that.

16:36 No typos, every edge case handled, every stakeholder signed off.

16:40 That's unreasonable.

16:41 Quality is your goal.

16:43 Perfection is the trap you have to avoid on the way to it.

16:46 And I really like to think about it like that.

16:47 Like imagine like you're walking down a path.

16:50 And as you go on the path, at the end of the path, you can see your goal.

16:53 And in the middle of the path is

16:54 a giant cavernous black hole that says perfection on it.

17:00 And if you get too close to that thing, it's just going to grab you.

17:04 But if you skirt the edges, you won't be perfect.

17:07 You won't stay perfectly on the path.

17:09 You'll get some You'll maybe get a little lost,

17:11 but you'll get back on the goal, and you'll stay forward momentum.

17:14 And so, the worst entrepreneurs I think try to ship at 100% and end up

17:18 shipping at 40% 6 months later cuz they never had real data to work against.

17:24 And I think in this world we're in today, this is more true than ever.

17:28 I don't know about you, but I certainly don't feel like I have less inputs.

17:31 Like there's less content I can watch.

17:33 There's less distractions.

17:35 Everything's more.

17:36 More of everything.

17:37 And so, I think you have to start narrowing down.

17:40 And I love this [clears throat] line by Reid Hoffman.

17:42 He said, um "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product,

17:46 you shipped too late." You know,

17:48 it's funny cuz I was trying to think about example stories for this one.

17:51 And I was actually what it came to, I cannot think

17:53 of a single time in which I shipped a product and it was perfect.

17:58 Like ever.

17:58 I've been what, entrepreneurship for 15, 16 years by now?

18:02 I've never shipped a perfect product.

18:04 I've probably always been too early.

18:06 I'm notorious for always underpricing things,

18:09 not overpricing them or appropriately pricing them.

18:11 And when I started Contrarian Thinking,

18:15 I offered a lifetime membership to something

18:18 that required my time every single week.

18:21 And I think I charged people like 499 bucks for it for a lifetime of access.

18:26 What was I thinking?

18:28 And I remember people still get mad.

18:30 Like you I had lifetime access.

18:31 I was like, "I had to close that whole product line because

18:34 that thing made so little sense." But that little thing that made no sense,

18:39 that was way on your price, got me to where I am today.

18:42 So, here's five moves you can make to increase your speed and get the win,

18:47 and not let those little mistakes stop you.

18:49 Okay, you ready for the five?

18:51 Okay, one.

18:52 End every meeting with a decision or a deletion.

18:54 If the meeting didn't produce one or the other, it was therapy.

18:59 That's not a meeting.

19:00 If the next meeting can't produce either, cancel it.

19:03 Just don't even have the meeting.

19:05 Okay?

19:05 Two.

19:06 24-hour rule.

19:07 You already heard me talk about this a little bit,

19:08 but every decision that's a two-way door, any reversible decision in your life,

19:13 gets made within 24 hours of being surfaced.

19:15 New vendor, bam, tomorrow.

19:17 New test, run it tomorrow.

19:18 The shot clock of 24 hours forces clarity.

19:21 I'm considering making it faster.

19:23 24 hours may be too slow in today's world.

19:25 Well, let's chill out for right now.

19:27 We'll start with 24.

19:28 Three.

19:29 Kill one recurring meeting in your life this week.

19:31 Pick the weak one.

19:33 The one where everyone shows up with nothing and leaves with nothing.

19:35 Kill it.

19:36 Send a note instead.

19:37 If nobody asks for it back after 2 weeks,

19:39 it's proof you made the right decision.

19:41 Also on this one, be pissed if somebody wastes your time or your team's time.

19:45 I had a meeting this week where a guy

19:46 was supposed to come with a bunch of ideas.

19:48 One of my members is located in the the The guy stayed

19:51 up until like 9:00 or 10 at night UK time to to be

19:54 at this meeting and the guy who was supposed to come

19:56 with all the ideas didn't come with ideas fully flushed at all.

20:00 Now, for me it was like three or four, I don't know,

20:03 time differences, but it it was during my work day.

20:05 So like I could have just been like, "Okay,

20:07 well, whatever." But I said, you know, I said,

20:10 "Please exit the meeting" to this guy and I said,

20:12 "Did you guys think those ideas were fully flushed out?" The team said,

20:15 "No." I go, "Christian, do you feel like you wasted your Friday night

20:19 or was this use- useful for you?" And he said,

20:22 "No, this wasn't very useful for me." And I said, "I'm so sorry.

20:26 It's totally unacceptable that we should take away your time,

20:29 somebody else didn't prep so that you had to waste your day.

20:33 Not okay." And so that was the feedback we gave him.

20:35 We said, "If you're going to do that again,

20:37 please pick another company cuz this isn't going

20:39 to roll here and I value my team's time.

20:42 I want these[ __] to work hard,

20:44 but I don't want them to have to work harder than they need to, like ever.

20:47 I don't want them to waste their time.

20:49 That's just mean.

20:50 And so think about where in your life can you do the exact same thing.

20:53 Kill time vampires.

20:56 Four, write the press release first.

20:58 I love this.

20:58 Before you build anything new or pursue a new idea, write a faux press release.

21:03 Like, what does it do?

21:05 Why does the customer care?

21:06 How is it different?

21:08 If it's not compelling, duh, should we build it?

21:11 This is going to compress months of planning into an afternoon.

21:14 And then step five, maybe the most important, disagree and commit.

21:18 Your team does not need consensus.

21:20 Not everybody has to agree.

21:22 It needs commit- It needs commitment.

21:24 Anybody can disagree publicly and push back hard.

21:27 That's okay.

21:28 But there will be a moment where you will have to say,

21:30 "We are moving through this." And so at our company we say disagree, but commit.

21:35 So full effort, no sabotage.

21:38 This single cultural move will triple your speed.

21:41 Just one other example from this weekend cuz

21:43 I was apparently on a[ __] roll this weekend.

21:45 Um Tell me if you guys want a podcast on this.

21:48 I'm kind of obsessing on it.

21:50 Tell me in the comments and I'll I'll do a different one,

21:51 but I really don't like when people think small.

21:54 I think it's like the single reason why most people don't

21:56 live a big beautiful life is that they have like these self-

21:59 con- It's almost like you put yourself in a coffin and don't

22:02 realize that the walls of the coffin are made of paper.

22:05 Like, okay, you just you just break out of that[ __] And so this weekend

22:09 uh we had one of those moments where a team member basically was like,

22:12 "Well, I think we should do X instead of Y." And the X was a small move.

22:16 It was the safe play.

22:18 And I won't out him cuz, you know, uh this is a great employee,

22:21 but I basically had to write I wrote a strongly worded email.

22:27 [laughter]

22:26 And the email just said like, "We need to think big when we talk to vendors.

22:30 If you're not going to think big yet or you're not ready to or I

22:32 haven't prepared you to think big yet or you don't understand thinking big,

22:36 um that's my fault, not yours, that I haven't rubbed that off on you yet.

22:40 But if you can't think big, don't talk to vendors.

22:43 Just don't talk to them.

22:44 Hand them off to me or the other members

22:46 of the team that get it and when you get it, you can talk to them again.

22:49 Um but like do not play small on my dime.

22:53 And the payoff here is going to be big, you guys.

22:56 Every competitor you have is slower than they should be.

22:59 And speed is like sitting there free, untouched,

23:02 available to anybody willing to pick it up.

23:05 And I wanted you to obsess on this so much

23:07 that I do these workshops at Contrarian Thinking all about speed.

23:11 They're called growth accelerator workshops and we think about how

23:14 can we collapse 12 months of work into 72 hours?

23:18 How can we collapse four months of results into 72 hours?

23:22 On average, we find anywhere from four to seven million dollars

23:26 in uh hidden money inside of business owners' own business during the event.

23:32 It's max 100 people here with me in Austin.

23:35 If you haven't come to one and you own a business, I want to invite you out.

23:38 It is probably my favorite event that we

23:40 throw in person because it's a workshop, it's not just a speech.

23:44 So if this is interesting for you, link in the description below.

23:47 We only do these four times a year, so get on the waitlist for one of them.

23:51 Because the truth is you don't need a perfect idea,

23:53 a perfect product or a perfect solution.

23:55 You need a faster clock.

23:57 Like enough cycles with a fast clock allows

24:01 you to bury the slow operator, not beat them.

24:06 And in the game of business it is a war between winning and losing.

24:09 So here's your homework.

24:11 Pick one decision tonight, something reversible,

24:13 something you've been sitting on longer than a week.

24:16 Run the decay question on it.

24:18 Is what you'll learn in the next 30 days worth what you'll lose?

24:21 For most of them, let's be honest.

24:23 Look me right in the windows to my soul and tell me, the answer is no, right?

24:27 We got to decide before the sun comes up tomorrow.

24:30 You'll learn more from being wrong in 24

24:32 hours than from being perfect in 24 weeks.

24:36 Winners move fast.

24:38 You're a winner, otherwise you wouldn't be here.

24:40 Thank you for spending your time with me.

24:42 I'll see you next week on the Big Deal podcast and if you got a slow ass friend,

24:46 send them link to this.

24:48 Or employee.

24:49 I'll yell at them for you.

24:53 [music]