Short & Sweet reviews of our favorite books for entrepreneurs. This weeks review:
WAIT – THE ART & SCIENCE OF DELAY
by Frank Partnoy
5 out of 5 NINJA STARS
At its core, being an entrepreneur is all about decision-making. After all, you call all of the shots; you are the one in charge of the vision and growth of your company. While big companies can handle a few mistakes, for freelancers and small businesses, one wrong key decision can be fatal. Therefore, it is crucial that entrepreneurs have a strategy for decision-making. “Wait – The Art & Science Of Delay” can help you with convincing evidence and good strategies for making better decisions simply by doing one thing: waiting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Professor Frank Partnoy is the George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance and is the director of the Center on Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the complexities of modern finance and financial market regulation. Since 1997, he has been a law professor at the University of San Diego, and an expert writing and speaking about markets to Congress, regulators, academics, and investors. He has written numerous opinion pieces for The New York Times and the Financial Times, and more than two dozen scholarly articles published in academic journals including The Journal of Finance.” -frankpartnoy.com
1 SENTENCE BOOK SUMMARY
“Wait” successfully makes the case that the ability to slow down and repress our impulses is a fundamental key to success, improving results in all aspects of life.
FAVORITE QUOTE
“Don’t just do something, stand there.”
10 KEY TAKEAWAYS
- “Heart rate variability – having a wide range of heart rate acceleration and deceleration – is a measure of mental health.
- “In decision-making, our hearts can be at least as important to our ability to wait as our minds.”
- “How long you should wait depends on what you care more about: time or cost.
- “An expert generally won’t need to delay a decision, but a novice generally should delay, as much as possible.”
- “Not many experts will admit, or even see when they are novices.”
- “If you only have a few seconds to make a decision, you had better be an expert.”
- “When we are not experts and we don’t have time to compare and choose rationally among options, the best choice if often to do nothing.”
- “The best decisions made in time-pressured situations are those we have prepared for in advance.”
- “Novices who wrongly believe they are experts are doomed.”
- “Think of the heart as being like the engine and brakes of a car. If you are driving down a winding two-lane road in a car that doesn’t reliably accelerate or slow down, your travels are going to be unpleasant and stressful. If it gets dark or the weather turns bad, you might panic and overreact. But if you are confident that you can easily speed up to pass or slow down at a dangerous curve, you will be more secure about your maneuvers. You won’t necessarily gun the accelerator all the time or slam on the brakes. But sometimes you will need a wide range of variation, maybe a burst of speed followed by several minutes at a calm and steady pace. A car’s superior performance will give you a lot of comfort during the drive.”
OUR NINJA OPINION
For freelancers and entrepreneurs, good decision-making is key but many of us don’t even think about having a universal strategy behind our decision-making process. “Wait” can help. Not only does the book help you to build your own strategy, but in a way, it also gives you permission to do nothing and wait when people and situations seem to demand fast and immediate decisions from you. Highly recommended.
