Fast ≠ Far: When Speed Shrinks Your Field of Vision

Speed can be useful.

But when speed becomes the goal, founders stop seeing.
The last two Founder Reflections posts uncovered the hidden costs of DIY and Bootstrapping.

Today, we examine a third reflex founders wear like a badge:
Build Fast / Fail Fast.

1. When Speed Becomes The Goal

Build Fast / Fail Fast sounds efficient
Momentum feels like progress
until it isn’t.

2. Tunnel Vision
Speed narrows focus
You stop seeing the venture
You lock onto
what’s right in front of you:
your product.

3. What Gets Overlooked
A venture requires
more than a product

It includes:
Standards + culture
Infrastructure + continuity
Segmentation + timing.

4. Common Traps
Speed creates false conclusions:
• One enthusiastic person becomes “our ideal customer”
• Early praise feels like product-market fit.
• First-to-market feels like strategy.
• Fast hire / fast fire feels like leadership —
when it’s actually churn.

5. Fail Fast: The Assumption
Fail fast strategy sounds bold

It assumes that you have:
• Unlimited time
• Unlimited runway
• Unlimited emotional capacity

Fail fast spends like it’s free
It’s sustainable until what it costs
outweighs what it teaches.

6. Fail Fast: The Hidden Cost 
You’re not just discarding experiments.
You’re burning runway:
Time → gone
Morale → chipped
Market timing → missed
Confidence → taxed

Investors don’t fund learning

They fund discernment and results.

8. The Real Issue
Build Fast / Fail Fast
is a product discipline.

Founders treat it like a philosophy

Products reboot quickly
Companies don’t.

9. The Big Picture
Fast gets you moving.
Perspective sets your course.

Seamanship isn’t acceleration
Seamanship is awareness —
knowing when to move fast
and when to widen your horizon.

If this resonates, save it.
Decisions move fast — reflection gives you sight.

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