Like 96% of business metaphors, the concept of fire and advance comes from a military tactic. Troops lay down cover fire to suppress the enemy while others move forward. Apply the concept (but not bullets) to your projects and tasks.
When you can accomplish a task in half the time it takes someone else, you gain time and an opportunity to tackle the next thing sooner. The more you do, the more you can get done.
Speed is a virtue for almost all low-risk tasks. It’s also a self-reinforcing trait. The faster you move, the more efficient you become. Efficiency builds momentum, and momentum makes even bigger things possible.
Moving fast rewires how you perceive the world. Costs and barriers to entry shrink. Speed helps you develop a bias for action rather than contemplation. It also trains you to find points of traction faster than others, whether those points of traction are workarounds, shortcuts, or completely novel approaches. Incremental progress (years of practice) drives revelatory insights (the mythical overnight success).
A rapid completion cycle also compounds when you’re developing a skill. The faster you work, the faster you learn, the more you can do, and so on.
Potential traps:
- If you move fast, your time may appear cheap. Just because you do it fast doesn’t mean you have to deliver it fast.
- Your workload will grow. As people perceive you as the fastest channel for throughput, they’ll send more your way. (“If you want it done fast, give it to a busy person.”) So be careful to rate-limit and delegate if your earning potential is capped.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re always right. It matters that you’re always moving.”
Seth Godin