Habits, not projects

I’ve found myself saying this a lot to clients lately.

“Habits, not projects.”

At big companies, a new GTM initiative might start with a whitepaper.

You build your battle plan on a white board,

You build consensus, hire a team, spend months in development,

Then you launch.

But in a startup, there’s no time for that.

You can’t go heads-down for a year - forget about it.

You don’t have the people or budget for a grand rollout.

And even if you did, what if it flops?

Early-stage teams rely on tight feedback loops.

You need to ship fast, test often, and learn something this week, not next quarter.

That doesn’t mean you never go big.

You can place a few bold bets,

But those should be rare, and they’re risky.

Most momentum comes from repeated, incremental progress.

But it’s not just about agility;

It’s also about capacity.

A one-time sprint won’t get you far if what you really need is rhythm.

You don’t need a blog post, or a customer call, or an accounting check-in.

You need those things on a cadence - weekly, monthly, whatever fits.

That’s why I tell founders:

Don’t do projects. Build habits.

And when you’re choosing a path, don’t ask what looks most impressive.

Ask what you can stick with.

Because consistency wins.

Every time.

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