This essay as told is based on a transcribed conversation with Richard White, CEO of the Société de notes de l’Ia Fathom. The following has been modified for duration and clarity.
Everyone talks about procrastination as a personal failure. I do not agree. I am an extreme procrastinator, and I am in the process of creating prosperous companies, such as Uservoice and, more recently, Fathom, for 15 years.
It was one of my greatest assets as an entrepreneur. I consider procrastination as a ruthless disguised priority.
Consider procrastination as a data collection
Procrastination is a way to collect more information before making critical decisions. When I delay a choice, I am not lazy; I am waiting for the optimal moment when I have enough data to make the right call.
In college, I judged the size of a project and left it at the last minute feasible. I might have frustrated my peers or not the best party of each seminar, but I would do exactly what was necessary and nothing more. Since then, I have learned to be more thought of on my approach.
I used this philosophy to build Fathom, which now has an eight -digit assessment. We started building the company in 2020. Instead of rushing to the market with available technology, we waited. We have collected data. We have seen the ability to evolve.
For example, before the deployment of GPT-4 and Claude 2, Fathom would produce basic calls. When the GPT-4 was made available, we saw its capacities and knew that concerted investments on our side would cause massive gains. It was a basis for our more advanced call summary features, and any previous investment would not have been so useful to our company.
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The same principle applies to my personal life. I plan to travel at the last minute because I want to see what opportunities emerge, which is really going on in my life and what I could miss if I get too early.
In other work environments or even relationships, being procrastinator can annoy people. However, the real and most common decrease in procrastination underestimates the required efforts and start something too late to respect the deadline. As CEO, I can define the deadlines or, in our case, create an environment without maturity.
Urgent questions to win on important issues
I adopted a fashionable approach for a CEO: the urgent advantages are important. It advances our whole business without anyone waiting for me to progress.
This means that sometimes important but non -urgent things languish. I tell my team that if something is really important, they should continue to mark me until I answer. This creates a culture where people at all levels of the company can defend what matters, and really important tasks are not lost.
I developed what I call the “JENGA model” to manage my business. Like the game, when a song seems too difficult or risky to move, I leave it and I come back later. I can think of a problem and put it back without fear. Months later, I will pick it up, and suddenly, the answer falls immediately.
I will give priority to the problems that will increase over time, such as carrying out a significant change of product, as well as the problems where the solutions are low issues or reversible. Decisions with non -reversible higher issues should be deferred to collect data as long as possible, or elected in low -stock market decisions which help collect data to clarify the greater problem.
For product development, we circulate internal ideas while waiting for technological improvements. We do not rush into the features to market. Instead, we are waiting for AI to improve, let’s watch what could go wrong and optimize our timing. I don’t think I have missed an opportunity. The reality in startups is that little has a “hard” deadline.
The implementation of an environment without maturity at Fathom means that there have been many negative comments on this model. My team understands what we prioritize in relation to what we do later.
CEOs must play their strengths
Work alongside large entrepreneurs over the years taught me that you cannot build something around you who do not play with your strength.
My strength is not planning or rigid schedules. My strength is to recognize optimal timing, collect information and make decisions with high impact. I delegate objectives open to my teams rather than micro -management tasks. I encourage people at all levels to make decisions.
Most people think that efficiency means doing things as quickly as possible. I think efficiency means doing things at the right time. You might be wrong about the moment when something is necessary or the cost of execution of time, but it is the risk you take using your best collective judgment.
This state of mind was incredibly well served. We explore the means to use AI to take better grades, reduce unnecessary meetings and democratize the sharing of information within companies.
The next time someone tells you that procrastination is holding you, ask yourself: are you really procrastinating or are you waiting for better information? Are you lazy or are you strategically patient? Sometimes the best thing you can do is pose the problem and come back when you can solve it easily and effectively.
