The Unfair Advantage of Speed
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The Unfair Advantage of Speed
You're overthinking again.
I know because I see it every day. Talented people stuck in endless cycles of planning, researching, and "getting ready" while others with half their talent rocket past them.
The difference isn't intelligence, resources, or luck.
It's speed.
The most successful people I've ever met share one trait that overshadows everything else: they move absurdly fast from idea to action.
While you're drafting the perfect plan, they've already launched version 1.0, collected feedback, and improved to version 1.2.
While you're researching the ideal approach, they've tested three different methods and identified what actually works.
While you're waiting for the perfect moment, they're creating momentum that makes timing irrelevant.
Speed is the ultimate unfair advantage in a world of overthinking.
Let me show you why this matters more than almost anything else, and how to weaponize speed in your own life before your potential expires unused.
The Hidden Cost of Hesitation
Every day you wait costs more than you think.
Most people calculate the cost of action: time, money, energy, potential failure.
Few calculate the cost of inaction: missed opportunities, delayed learning, and the compound interest of experience never gained.
This asymmetric calculation creates the perfect trap – one where doing nothing feels safer than doing something.
Naval Ravikant built multiple successful companies and became one of tech's most respected investors. His observation on this trap cuts deep:
"The most impressive people I know have strong opinions, weakly held. They move fast, as if right, but adapt quickly, as if wrong."
The key insight here isn't about being right. It's about the velocity of iteration.
Your first version will be wrong. So will theirs.
The difference? They'll be on version 5.0 while you're still polishing version 0.9.
Every day of hesitation doesn't just delay success – it fundamentally reduces its probability.
And this compounds in ways most people never recognize.
The Mathematics of Doing vs. Planning
Fast execution creates a compounding advantage that planning can never match.
Let's break down the math:
The perfectionist who spends 3 months planning and 1 month executing gets one cycle of real-world feedback every 4 months.
The speed demon who spends 2 days planning and 14 days executing gets one cycle of real-world feedback every 16 days.
Over the course of a year:
The perfectionist gets 3 feedback cycles
The speed demon gets 22 feedback cycles
But it's worse than that. Each feedback cycle doesn't just add knowledge – it multiplies it. Solutions combine, insights stack, and relationships compound.
The gap between 3 cycles and 22 cycles isn't 7x. It's closer to 100x in real-world outcomes.
I watched this play out with two entrepreneurs in the same industry. One spent six months building the "perfect" product before launch. The other launched a rough version in two weeks, then improved it daily based on customer feedback.
Within four months, the fast mover had:
A product perfectly tailored to what customers actually wanted (not what he thought they wanted)
Revenue that funded continued development
A growing base of customers who felt invested in the product's evolution
A sales process refined through dozens of real conversations
The perfectionist was still tweaking features nobody had asked for.
By the time both products were technically equivalent, one business was thriving while the other was struggling to gain traction from a standing start.
This isn't just about business. It's about any goal worth pursuing.
What Speed Actually Looks Like
Most people misunderstand speed. They think it means rushing, being sloppy, or cutting corners.
True speed is something different entirely.
It's ruthless prioritization – identifying the 20% of work that delivers 80% of results, and doing that first.
It's intelligent elimination – removing everything that doesn't directly contribute to forward motion.
It's focusing on progress over perfection – understanding that momentum itself solves problems that planning never will.
Take Elon Musk's approach at SpaceX. While traditional aerospace companies spent years perfecting designs before building anything, Musk insisted on building minimum viable rockets that could be tested, destroyed, and improved rapidly.
The result? SpaceX moved from founding to orbit in 6 years – something that typically took decades and billions more dollars.
This wasn't reckless. It was calculated. Musk understood that real-world data would teach them more than any amount of theoretical planning.
The pattern repeats across every domain:
Jeff Bezos implementing "Type 1/Type 2" decision making at Amazon – recognizing that most decisions should be made with incomplete information because the cost of delay exceeds the benefit of additional analysis.
Ernest Hemingway writing his daily word count regardless of quality, knowing he could edit later but couldn't recover lost momentum.
Netflix testing thousands of thumbnail variations simultaneously rather than debating which might perform best.
Speed isn't the enemy of quality. It's the pathway to it.
And adopting this mindset requires dismantling some dangerous myths.
The Deadly Myths Slowing You Down
Your hesitation is built on myths that feel true but collapse under scrutiny.
Myth 1: "I need to feel ready before I start"
Readiness is a feeling that follows action, not precedes it.
No one feels ready before they begin. The sensation of readiness comes from having already started and survived the initial discomfort.
Action creates readiness, not the other way around.
Myth 2: "I need to have the complete plan"
Plans are worthless. Planning is essential.
Eisenhower understood this paradox. The value isn't in the static document but in the thinking process. And that thinking continues and improves once action begins.
The most valuable planning happens in response to real-world feedback, not in anticipation of it.
Myth 3: "More research will prevent mistakes"
Research beyond a certain point doesn't prevent mistakes – it prevents progress.
Some lessons can only be learned through experience. No amount of study will teach you what direct contact with reality will reveal in minutes.
The fastest path to the right answer isn't more analysis. It's fast, cheap failure followed by adjustment.
Breaking free of these myths doesn't happen through intellectual agreement. It happens through practicing a new set of habits.
The Speed Habits That Change Everything
Speed isn't just a mindset. It's a set of practical habits that anyone can develop.
1. Set Embarrassing Deadlines
Whatever timeline seems reasonable, cut it in half.
We naturally expand work to fill available time. Compression forces prioritization and creativity that comfort never will.
I've seen people accomplish in 3 days what they initially thought would take 3 weeks – not by working harder, but by working differently under the pressure of a deadline that seemed impossible.
2. Create Before You Consume
Make your first hour of the day a creation hour, not a consumption hour.
Don't check email, social media, or news until you've created something. Anything.
This simple habit prevents the day from slipping into reactive mode and ensures forward motion on what matters most.
3. Implement the 1-Touch Rule
Handle each input exactly once.
When an email arrives, either respond immediately, delegate it, schedule it for later action, or delete it. Never just read it and leave it for later consideration.
This eliminates the invisible drag of re-processing the same inputs multiple times.
The cumulative effect of these habits isn't just faster progress. It's a completely different relationship with time and possibility.
The Psychological Freedom of Speed
Beyond the practical benefits, speed creates psychological freedom that hesitation never will.
When you act quickly:
Failure loses its sting because it's just data, not a referendum on your worth
Individual decisions matter less because you'll make so many more of them
Perfectionism dies because you see how unnecessary it actually was
Fear subsides because you realize most mistakes aren't fatal
The slower you move, the heavier each decision feels. The faster you move, the lighter your psychological load becomes.
I've watched this transformation in entrepreneurs I've worked with. The shift from slow deliberation to rapid execution doesn't just change their results – it changes their entire experience of work and life.
The constant angst of "Am I making the right move?" gets replaced with the energizing question of "What did I learn from that last move?"
This isn't just more productive. It's more alive.
The Risk Asymmetry Most People Miss
The final piece of this puzzle is understanding the true risk profile of speed versus hesitation.
Most people intuitively feel that moving fast is riskier than moving slowly. The evidence suggests the opposite.
In a world of rapid change, slow movement is often the riskiest strategy.
By the time the cautious person has finished planning, the opportunity has evolved, the market has shifted, or someone else has captured the potential.
Speed doesn't create risk. It mitigates it by distributing it across more attempts.
The person who tries once risks everything on that single attempt. The person who tries ten times in the same period spreads risk across multiple iterations.
This is the counterintuitive truth: Moving fast is actually the conservative approach.
The truly risky strategy is betting everything on one slow, perfect move in a world that won't sit still waiting for you.
The Decision That Changes Everything
There's a pivotal moment that separates those who achieve from those who merely dream.
It's not a grand epiphany or dramatic turning point.
It's a simple choice made repeatedly: to act before you feel ready.
To ship the imperfect project. To make the call without perfect information. To start the business before all questions are answered. To publish the work before all doubt is gone.
This isn't about being reckless. It's about recognizing that the costs of hesitation far exceed the costs of imperfect action.
Success doesn't come from having the best ideas. Ideas are everywhere.
It doesn't come from making the perfect plans. Plans are outdated the moment they're completed.
Success comes from the velocity of execution – the speed at which you move from thought to action, from problem to solution, from failure to adjustment.
And that speed is entirely within your control, starting right now.
Not tomorrow. Not when you feel ready. Not after one more round of research.
Now.
Whatever you've been postponing, whatever you've been overthinking, whatever you've been waiting to get "just right" before starting – take one concrete step in the next 24 hours.
Because while others are still debating, researching, or hesitating, you could already be learning, adjusting, and making progress.
And that makes all the difference.
Thank you for reading.
– Scott
This is what I needed to read rn, thanks for the post! 🔥