The Virtue of Doing Nothing
I don't mean the lazy-kind. I mean the deliberate choice of doing nothing.
As an entrepreneur, your success is usually measured by your actions, not your inaction. You are expected to do something, even if maintaining the status quo would have been a better decision.
That brings me to my main point.
When we make decisions, we tend only to evaluate options that change something.
Why? Maybe we associate change with progress.
I don't deny that change can be beneficial. By changing your design, adopting e-commerce, or introducing a new product line, a company can adapt to new market trends and conditions. That is how companies stay in business. They always make changes.
While I respect and completely agree with the need to improve, it sometimes feels that some modifications make things worse instead of better.
Every change also has a destructive element. By introducing a new workflow, for example, you abandon the existing and proven one. Did you fairly evaluate beforehand that the new process improves speed or efficiency? Does it add complexity that you did not have before? How thorough was your assessment? Did you give the do-nothing-option the same attention?
"If it isn't broke, don't fix it," says an old English proverb. However, for many business leaders in our hyperactive world, doing nothing is not an option they would even consider. That is a shame.
Not everything new is good, and not everything that already exists is terrible.
In my experience, once you start to analyze every option, including the do-nothing-option, with the same thoroughness, you will likely improve the quality of your decisions. And maybe you come to appreciate the virtue of doing nothing.
Try to Answer This Question Before You Make a Decision: Having to make a decision under time pressure can be very intense. What helped me focus on the important aspects of the decision was asking what problem I wanted to solve.
