Lessons Learned from a Legendary VC

He said two things:

“If it takes less than five minutes, do it now.” - Act with urgency

“If it is a truly hard decision, it doesn’t matter what you choose. It only matters what you do next.” - Make decisions quickly

Act with urgency

“If it takes less than five minutes, do it now.”

Kevin told the story of a founder sitting in his office who was complaining about not being able to get a meeting with an important prospect. After listening to the founder for a few minutes, Kevin said “Great, let’s get them on the phone right now” and picked up the phone to make the call. 

Handling small tasks quickly does a couple of very important things: 

First, it communicates to the other party that their time is valuable. For example, answering emails the same day sends a very different signal than responding three days later.

Second, it keeps your snowball small. Each of us have more work than we can get done in a day, but if we can manage to knock out the majority of the small stuff each day, it helps to keep work from piling up and eventually overtaking us. 

The point is not to spend our entire day bouncing from one small task to another and never getting important work done. Rather, when we have the time and opportunity to take care of something right away, do it. 

Make decisions quickly

“If it is a truly hard decision, it doesn’t matter what you choose. It only matters what you do next.”

There are two takeaways from this lesson. 

First, there are very few truly hard decisions. Often we know what the right answer is, but the path is uncomfortable when compared with not making a decision or continuing to seek more information. For example, if we’re deciding between two great candidates for a key position, most likely either one will work out, though the paths will be different.

Second, the quicker we make decisions, the quicker we get feedback for the next decision. Even if (and perhaps especially if) the decision ends up being wrong, the ability to act quickly to correct it helps to minimize the impact of the decision.

Kevin's advice is a great reminder for us as leaders to act quickly and decisively. When we do, we keep things moving forward and set a great example for our team. 

Embrace these two key skills, and you'll be better equipped to handle the ups and downs of building and growing a successful business.