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Telling the stories of startup founders and creators and their unique journey. Each episode features actionable tips, practical advice and inspirational insight.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:01
Welcome to the Founders Journey podcast. Inspiration education for Founders by Founders. Hey welcome back. I'm Greg Moran from Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners and the Founders Collective and host of the Founders Journey podcast. Ben is startup founder and CEO for about 20 plus years. So we've got all the scars to go with that kind of experience, and I've been lucky enough to have a few exits along the way.
00:00:28:01 - 00:00:55:13
And now I'm a VC investor, an advisor to high growth startups. Today I'm going to actually flip the script on something you've been told is your biggest enemy. I believe for a long time this was my biggest enemy as well. And it's procrastination. So what if I told you that procrastination as a startup founder, as a leader isn't necessarily the problem, but often it's your mind's way of telling you something really important that you may want to listen to.
00:00:55:18 - 00:01:18:22
Most of us have really been taught that procrastination is bad. I know I was always taught that. I believe that a small part of me probably believes that today we feel guilty. We feel stressed or frustrated when we put things off, that there's a lot of good reasons we don't want to put everything off right. But what if that delay is not really just laziness or avoidance?
00:01:18:27 - 00:01:41:19
But what if the delay is a subconscious signal that we need to listen to? So in this video, I'm going to show you how procrastination can actually be the hidden superpower of a founder or startup leader. And really, when it can turn from helpful to harmful, which it certainly can as well. So let's start by talking about how most of us view procrastination.
00:01:41:19 - 00:02:07:18
Probably a lot like I've viewed it. I'm sure it's essentially seen as a bad habit, right? Something that we need to break. It's something we start to believe. It's something that happens because we're lazy or unmotivated, or we're just really bad at time management. And then the guilt starts to kick in, right? And we've all been there. We've all waited to the last minute.
00:02:07:18 - 00:02:33:10
We start stressing out. We start feeling like we've failed already. And you know, it becomes a really, really this functional thing that we I think all of us from time to time, battled with. But this view makes procrastination feel like something that we need to fight against at all costs. But it's not that simple, right? Because what if procrastination is more than just the enemy of productivity?
00:02:33:16 - 00:03:02:06
So here's our want to really flip the script. What if procrastinate is actually a signal? It's a signal from your subconscious that something about a task isn't quite right. I know we've all had those moments right where we're having a hard time really getting ourselves going because we're just. There's something missing. As a VC, I've had a lot of instances where I've delayed making an investment because I can't tell you necessarily, but something didn't feel right.
00:03:02:12 - 00:03:26:25
Often I'd ask founders, you know, critical questions, and their answers may seem inauthentic, or maybe they just haven't really thought them through. And instead of pushing forward, I waited. I kept regular check ins with them and really observing the progress of that business. And in some cases, that delay confirmed my concerns. Right. And we ended up passing on the investment.
00:03:26:26 - 00:03:58:21
Other times, it allowed us to invest later, but we had a lot more conviction because we had given it time, right? We procrastinated on that decision. I gave it time to really develop in my mind. So what hindsight actually waiting was often the best move in those cases. So what if procrastination is more than just stalling? What if it's your brain actually telling you to pause and reflect, to give yourself some space to really assess whether a task or a decision is really aligned with your goals?
00:03:58:24 - 00:04:22:02
Procrastination doesn't just help us reflect. It can actually give us more time to be creative. So when we give us, when we give ourselves time to let ideas kind of incubate our brains, continue to process them in the background and the result? More creative, more innovative outcomes. Adam Grant, who's one of my favorite authors, I think you know, probably many of yours as well, is the author of a book called Originals.
00:04:22:02 - 00:04:43:28
And he calls this strategic procrastination, which I think is a great way to express it. He talks about how people like Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther King used for crashed the nation to their advantage. Da Vinci took years to finish the Mona Lisa. He refined it as he learned new techniques and he rushed through it. It wouldn't have been the masterpiece that it came to be.
00:04:43:28 - 00:05:09:02
Martin Luther King, in his famous I Have a Dream speech. It was actually partly improvised because he didn't finalize that speech until the last minute. That spark of creativity gave us one of the most memorable speeches in the history of the United States. So in my experience, I had something really similar happen to me after an acquisition that was nowhere near Da Vinci or Martin Luther King.
00:05:09:04 - 00:05:41:10
But after we saw something really interesting happened, after we had a major acquisition, I was scheduled to address the entire company. I had my presentation ready, but it just didn't. It just felt off, and at the last minute I decided to basically improvise, just speak for my heart about the fears that people had and joining our company as we brought these companies together, and that authenticity worked better than anything I had prepared in anything I could have prepared, because it helped me build trust across the team.
00:05:41:12 - 00:06:09:20
And that authenticity wasn't really available to me. As I rushed through trying to put together a speech. Sometimes that's what procrastination does. It gives us a chance to tap into spontaneity, to creativity, to emotional authenticity, but we also obviously we have to recognize procrastination can be negative, right? It can turn negative. It's not always helpful and can sometimes hurt us if we're just putting off tasks or letting things just pile up, which we all can do.
00:06:09:20 - 00:06:27:28
So here's how to know the difference. I want you to ask yourself three really simple questions. First, am I using this time to reflect and gain clarity, or am I just avoiding the task altogether? Second, is delaying this task going to lead to a better outcome or delaying it, just causing me more stress and lower quality of work?
00:06:27:29 - 00:06:53:23
And third, if the task is truly misaligned with my goals, or is this a task that's truly misaligned with my goals, or am I just uncomfortable or afraid of doing right? This can work both ways, and we've really got we've really got to get good at understanding the difference. And I think those three questions can really help. So if the answers point you toward more reflection, more clarity, more creativity, then procrastination in that case is actually working for you.
00:06:53:25 - 00:07:18:28
But if it's causing more stress, you're avoiding important tasks. That's when it turns negative. So how can you use procrastination in a way that works for you? Here's a really few just very simple tips first. Give yourself the time to reflect, right? Half the problem with procrastination. We often don't take time to reflect. When you're procrastinating, don't just instinctively beat yourself up.
00:07:19:03 - 00:07:47:23
Ask yourself why you're delaying. Give your self space to get clear on whether the task aligns with your goals. Second, use micro deadlines. This is something I've done works for me really well. Break really big tasks that seem that seem insurmountable into smaller, manageable chunks with really short deadlines. I had a great example of this yesterday. I've been putting off doing my taxes and getting my taxes ready to go for months, right?
00:07:48:00 - 00:08:07:07
Yesterday I set a goal for myself. I'm going to do 15 minutes of tax work, 15 minutes of getting my stuff together. And it turns out once I got going, first of all, it wasn't nearly as bad as I was making it in my mind. 15 minutes turned into a couple hours. It helped me make progress without feeling overwhelmed.
00:08:07:07 - 00:08:30:15
And that's what micro deadlines will do for you in third. Embrace procrastination as a real mental break, sometimes with just need to step away from a task. If doing that is exactly what you need to come back stronger and come back more focused. So to wrap this up, procrastination. It's not always your enemy. In fact, often it's your brain's way of telling you that something.
00:08:30:16 - 00:08:54:09
It's telling you something important that maybe something isn't quite right. Use procrastination as a tool to reflect, to get creativity to recharge. And you can turn it actually into a superpower instead of just the source of guilt that we carry around with us. So remember those three questions to know when procrastinating turns negative, and start paying attention to what your mind is really trying to tell you.
00:08:54:11 - 00:09:15:03
So thanks for watching. I hope this gave you a fresh perspective on procrastination. Be sure to like and subscribe! Leave a comment below and I'd love to hear from you. So we will see you next time. And on our future videos on the Founders Journey podcast.