A Quarter-Million Steps by Anthony Paustian

Author:Anthony Paustian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookPress Publishing

When Haste Doesn’t Make Waste

Up to this point, I have primarily focused on being effective and actually choosing good ideas for the long-term. However, efficiency is just as important, and there are times when taking a short cut or accelerating a process can actually yield long-term positive results. While effectiveness can be viewed as “choosing the right ideas,” efficiency can be viewed as “minimizing the amount of required resources to execute them.”

Like the phrase that Nike coined in 1988, sometimes the best strategy is to “Just Do It”—just jump in and get the job done because that’s what needs to happen. Yet, many people delay making decisions because of the risk associated with uncertainty. As long as this short-term process has been thought through in the context of a long-term strategy (and this is key), decision-making can yield a greater level of efficiency by using less time, money, and other valuable resources to value-sort ideas. We are able to accelerate the process of accomplishing desired long-term goals and objectives through more rapid, yet effective, short-term decision-making.

When a child is taught how to ride a bicycle, she usually gets a bike with a set of training wheels to support the bike during the learning process (or at the very least, the child is placed on the bike while a parent runs along the side holding it steady). Over time, the parent will gradually inch up the training wheels until the point where the child is no longer using them. This is typically followed by a grand ceremony of taking off the training wheels in front of the child as if she had just “graduated.”

For whatever reason, my dad decided that an expedited, more direct approach would be better. On that same freshly tarred-and-graveled hill where I rode my go-kart, my dad took me to the top, placed me on the bike, and let me go. Of course, I didn’t stay on it very long and fell. Dad just picked me up, brushed off the sticky gravel, placed me back on the bike, and let me go again. We repeated this process until I was riding on my own. Needless to say, I caught on quickly. I either had to learn how to ride or endure the pain of repeatedly falling and becoming “tarred and graveled.”

I’m not sure how much time Dad spent thinking through this “teaching moment” (which some people today might find somewhat harsh), but his actions had a huge impact on how I approach and deal with goals, tasks, and obstacles. Instead of slowly and incrementally approaching them, I have a tendency to quickly size-up a situation, make a decision, and jump on the bike, so to speak. But, unlike speed for the sake of speed, he taught me the most efficient path to success can be the quickest, but also the hardest, because it requires determination and a willingness to endure short-term pain for long-term gain.

Of course, I’ve made mistakes and poor choices, just like everyone else. However,

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