Tim Denning Argues Speed, Not Patience, Drives Business Success on LinkedIn

In a recent LinkedIn post, Tim Denning challenges the conventional wisdom that patience is a virtue in business, asserting instead that speed is the critical, often overlooked, differentiator between mediocrity and significant growth. Denning, a coach and business advisor, argues that successful entrepreneurs operate with a sense of urgency that can appear uncomfortable to those accustomed to a slower pace.

Denning opens his post by directly confronting the notion of patience as a positive attribute:

Patience isn’t a virtue. It’s the excuse average people use to justify moving at a speed that guarantees mediocrity.

He elaborates on this by contrasting the operational pace of high-achievers with their peers. According to Denning, the gap between scaling businesses and those that remain stagnant is not rooted in intelligence, resources, or even strategy, but in the speed of execution. He observes that top performers respond to opportunities rapidly, make swift decisions, and treat time as a finite resource.

The Urgency of Action

Denning illustrates his point with an anecdote about a client who transformed his business from $8,000 to $40,000 per month within four months. The key change, the client reported, was abandoning the habit of delaying action on ideas. Previously, he would spend weeks contemplating, planning, and often self-sabotaging before acting. Post-transformation, he began acting on initiatives within days or even hours, gaining a significant edge over competitors still in the planning phase.

This approach, Denning clarifies, is not recklessness. He distinguishes between reckless individuals who act without thought and urgent individuals who think quickly and then act even faster, compressing timelines out of a clear understanding of time’s value.

This isn’t recklessness. Reckless people move fast without thinking. Urgent people think fast and then move faster. They compress timelines that most people stretch out of fear or comfort.

The Cost of Delay

Denning extends this argument to career development and personal growth, noting that professionals often wait for the ‘perfect moment’ to make changes, which he frames as being slow rather than careful. He posits that every week of delay represents lost revenue, and every month of overthinking allows competitors to gain experience through action. He emphasizes that individuals who build significant wealth understand that speed is a competitive advantage that most people willingly forfeit.

He further explains that the urgency displayed by high performers might seem irrational or impatient to outsiders, but it stems from a profound clarity about the true cost of time. Denning reflects on his own past, regretting the years spent moving at a ‘normal pace’ in corporate jobs, believing he had ample time to figure things out. He identifies the trap of ‘normal speed,’ which feels safe due to its ubiquity but ultimately yields only normal results.

Escaping the Trap of Normal Speed

The alternative to this ‘normal speed,’ as presented by Denning, is not stress or burnout, but a conscious refusal to let comfort dictate one’s timeline. He challenges readers to consider what they might achieve if they allocated themselves half the time they believe is necessary for a task or decision.

The urgency isn’t about being stressed or burning out. It’s about refusing to let comfort dictate your timeline.

In conclusion, Tim Denning’s LinkedIn post advocates for a paradigm shift, urging business leaders and professionals to embrace speed and urgency as powerful tools for achieving exceptional results, rather than relying on the passive virtue of patience.