Time Kills All Deals: Why Momentum Matters More Than Perfection
Lesson 25 of 25 from podcast conversations with leaders who leave the world better than they found it
Galen Welsch, founder of Jibu, a water franchise operating across multiple countries, said something that captures a crucial truth about organizational growth:
"Time kills all deals."
He wasn't talking about negotiation tactics. He was talking about momentum.
When you move slowly on partnerships, the opportunity dies. When you delay decisions, energy dissipates. When you wait for perfect information, the moment passes.
Delays don't just postpone decisions. They can kill them.
And this matters enormously for organizations trying to scale impact.
The Problem With Perfectionism
Mission-driven organizations are often perfectionists.
We want to make sure we've thought through every angle. Consulted all stakeholders. Analyzed all data. Minimized all risks.
This thoroughness feels responsible. Like good stewardship. Like respect for the seriousness of the work.
But it has costs:
Opportunities close. That potential partner moves on. That funding window passes. That early adopter loses interest.
Energy dissipates. The initial excitement that makes things possible fades when you delay too long.
Context changes. The conditions that made an opportunity attractive shift while you're still analyzing.
Competitors move faster. While you're perfecting your approach, others are testing and learning.
Teams get frustrated. Nothing kills morale like endless discussion without decision.
There's a point where thoroughness becomes paralysis. Where responsible caution becomes strategic liability.
When Speed Is Strategy
I'm not advocating for recklessness. Some decisions genuinely require extensive analysis.
But there's a category of decisions where speed matters more than perfection:
Pilots and experiments: You can't know if something will work until you try it. Analyzing endlessly doesn't create clarity—testing does.
Partnerships: Relationships have momentum. When someone's interested in collaborating, act while that energy exists.
Market opportunities: Sometimes there's a window where conditions align. Wait too long and the window closes.
Reversible decisions: If you can easily adjust or reverse course, why wait? Test quickly and adapt.
Learning investments: When the goal is learning rather than scaling, speed lets you learn faster.
In all these cases, moving quickly with imperfect information beats waiting for perfect information that never comes.
This is especially true in dynamic environments. When you're working across multiple countries with different regulatory environments, political situations, economic conditions—delays mean context changes before you can act.
The opportunity that made sense six months ago might not make sense anymore. Not because your analysis was wrong, but because the world moved while you were analyzing.
The Six-Week Rule
Here's a practical guideline:
If your team has been discussing a decision for more than six weeks without deciding, you're no longer being thorough. You're avoiding.
Either:
You don't have enough information and need to get it quickly
You have enough information but lack courage to decide
The decision isn't actually important enough to warrant this much attention
You're using process as a way to delay uncomfortable choice
In any of these cases, the right move is the same: decide now.
Not because urgency is good in itself. But because prolonged indecision has costs that often exceed the costs of imperfect decision.
The Momentum Question
Before launching into extensive analysis on any decision, ask:
"Does this opportunity have momentum that will dissipate if we delay?"
If yes, speed matters. Make the call quickly, even if imperfectly.
If no, take time for thorough analysis.
Momentum-dependent decisions:
Partnership opportunities
Early-stage pilots
Market opportunities
Hiring strong candidates
Strategic pivots when team energy is aligned
Momentum-independent decisions:
Major capital investments
Fundamental mission changes
Irreversible structural changes
Decisions with significant downside risk
The key is knowing which type of decision you're facing.
Why Organizations Delay
Organizations delay decisions for several reasons:
Fear of mistakes: "What if we choose wrong and waste resources?"
Desire for consensus: "We need everyone on board before we move."
Perfectionism: "We need more data to be confident."
Conflict avoidance: "If we delay, maybe the conflict will resolve itself."
Lack of accountability: "Nobody's clearly responsible for making this call."
All of these are understandable. But they create slow organizations.
And slow organizations lose in dynamic environments.
They lose opportunities to faster competitors. They lose team morale to endless process. They lose momentum to analysis paralysis.
What Fast Decision-Making Requires
Moving quickly doesn't mean moving recklessly. It requires specific organizational capacities:
Clear decision authority: Everyone knows who makes which decisions. No ambiguity about accountability.
Rapid information gathering: You can quickly get the data you need to decide. Not perfect data—sufficient data.
Tolerance for uncertainty: Leadership can act on 70% certainty rather than waiting for 90%.
Reversibility mindset: You design decisions to be adjustable. Test small, learn fast, adapt.
Post-decision learning: You commit to learning from outcomes, whether decisions work or not.
Organizations with these capacities can move quickly without being reckless.
Organizations without them either move recklessly or don't move at all.
The Opportunity Cost Of Delay
Every day you delay a decision has a cost:
The direct cost of continuing your current approach when you could be testing a new approach.
The opportunity cost of time and attention spent on decision process rather than execution.
The energy cost of team members waiting for clarity.
The competitive cost of others moving while you're still deciding.
The relationship cost when partners wonder if you're serious.
These costs accumulate. Often they exceed the cost of making an imperfect decision and adjusting.
From Perfection To Momentum
I've learned this lesson multiple times: momentum matters more than perfection.
The perfect strategy that takes six months to develop is worse than the good-enough strategy you can implement this month.
The perfectly analyzed partnership that never happens is worse than the imperfect partnership you test and learn from.
The flawless pilot design that waits for ideal conditions is worse than the rough pilot you launch now and refine as you go.
This doesn't mean abandoning quality. It means valuing momentum as a component of quality.
Because in dynamic environments, the ability to move quickly and adapt is more valuable than the ability to optimize everything before acting.
Time kills all deals.
So identify one decision your team has been discussing for more than six weeks.
Make the call this week.
Even if it's imperfect.
You'll learn more from action than from more discussion.
And you'll preserve the momentum that makes things possible.
This is the final lesson in a 25-part series exploring insights from podcast conversations with leaders who leave the world better than they found it.
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Thank you for following this journey. May your organizations move with both wisdom and velocity.
