Every Generation Thinks They Invented Urgency
Does the pace of change justify cutting corners?
Ten years later, Mark Zuckerberg’s “Move fast and break things” is back in fashion. It sounds revolutionary until you remember that every generation believes they’re living through unprecedented change.
As I re-read Jim Collins’ classic Good to Great, this passage made me pause:
“There’s nothing new about being in a new economy. Those who faced the invention of electricity, the telephone, the automobile, the radio, or the transistor — did they feel it was any less of a new economy than we feel today?”
The entrepreneurs who built enduring companies through those transformations didn’t abandon fundamentals because change was accelerating. They doubled down on them.
Yet today’s startup culture treats discipline as the enemy of speed. Founders skip validation, scale before they can execute, and sacrifice profitability for growth — all because the moment supposedly demands it.
When unpredictability increases, rigour becomes more valuable, not less. The companies that thrive through disruption aren’t the ones that cut corners fastest. They’re the ones that build operational foundations strong enough to adapt when conditions shift.
Consider what “moving fast” means when you’re launching features nobody wants or scaling systems that break under pressure.
True speed comes from managing uncertainty rather than ignoring it, turning constraints into advantages, and building execution systems that deliver consistently.
Urgency without discipline isn’t strategy. It’s panic with better marketing.
Davender’s passion is to guide innovative entrepreneurs in developing the clarity, commitment, confidence and courage to enter, engage and lead their markets in an unpredictable world by thinking strategically and acting tactically. Find out more at https://www.davender.com and https://linkedin.com/in/coachdavender .