Published On: 1 Jan 0001
Notes
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son! ‘IF’ by Rudyard Kipling
Last week, I was on a call with a potential partner discussing their involvement in an event I’m helping to organize. The call went great, and the partner was happy and excited to be part of the event. Just before we exchanged final pleasantries, she remarked to my colleague G, “I am really impressed with how fast and quick Sandeep responded to my queries.”
I didn’t even notice that comment in the moment—being quick to respond is just how I usually operate. But clearly, she noticed, and it left a strong impression. Reflecting on it made me wonder: are we undervaluing something so simple and easy to achieve?
Early in my career, I realized that workplaces, far from being the high-pressure, boiler-room environments popular media often portrays, are usually filled with mostly relaxed people. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing—it just doesn’t align with my natural behavior. I feel uneasy when tasks (at work specifically) aren’t completed quickly. By extension, I assume that when I don’t act swiftly, it must unsettle others too. Over time, I developed what I’d call an uncanny ability to “compress time,” which has since become a defining feature of my personal brand.
What does that look like in practice? Replying to emails within 24 hours—and almost instantly on IM. Ensuring all tasks are completed ahead of deadlines. I’ve rarely met anyone who isn’t impressed by this approach. After all, we’re all impatient by nature when it comes to things we care about or need.
Think about how irritated you feel when the customer service team of [insert your favorite ISP here] tells you they’ll respond to your query in 48 hours (let alone resolve it). Now imagine the same complaint being fixed within an hour. You’d probably want to say “I do” to your ISP in a chapel!
In most cases, speed is a good thing. It’s a small but impactful way to stand out—and one that’s often overlooked.
👍 rule - Always do what you would expect other’s to do.
It is also worthwhile to discuss why I think velocity is so highly sought after:
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Impatience - In this age of almost instantaneous access to information and superfast computation at our fingertips, waiting can feel almost unbearable. For instance, having to wait two days for your junior analyst to make a simple font change on a presentation feels like racing in a shopping cart during an F1 race. The gap between expectations and delivery grows, making speed increasingly valuable.
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Decisiveness - In my experience, leaders who are highly decisive are also remarkably quick—almost as if the two are mutually dependent. Velocity signals decisiveness. I can’t stand it when people leave you hanging without making a decision or fail to communicate one way or the other.
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Sortedness - There is a noticeable positive social effect when someone is organized and sorted with their work. Having the discipline to stay organized means you’re typically on top of things, and very few details slip through the cracks. Most high-performing leaders I’ve observed, despite their busy schedules, are incredibly organized and reply at blazing speeds.
In fact, when we raised funding from VCs for my startup, the speed of their email replies often indicated their quality. The good ones were impressively fast, while the bad ones were unusually slow—and frustratingly so. Subconsciously, I often form my first impression of someone based on how quickly they respond to a communication. Interestingly, a majority of the famous people I’ve interacted with (sorry, I can’t name names) have been impressively fast responders. -
Agility - The ability to move quickly is what keeps a company or individual competitive. In highly uncertain or dynamic scenarios, where conditions change rapidly, responding quickly can be the difference between success and sudden failure.
If you’re a newly minted college graduate joining the workplace or a mid-career professional facing plateauing prospects, I highly recommend using velocity at work to catalyze your personal brand—I guarantee people will notice. However, as with all advice, it’s easier said than done.
As I alluded to earlier, my uneasiness with a lack of velocity stems from my personality—almost like an obsessive-compulsive tendency. But I’ve also cultivated it as part of the culture in my startup, so rest assured, it’s a skill that can be acquired (the skill, not the OCD). Here are a few process mechanisms you can adopt to build your own velocity:
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Get organized with your time - The most effective way to be quick is to stay organized. There are many ways to do this, but I find timeboxing to be the most effective. Think of it as to-do lists on steroids (or speed, or [insert your drug of choice]). Allocate 30–45-minute chunks on your calendar for specific tasks—checking email, replying to IMs, or even stalking your favorite influencer’s feed. This cadence ensures things get done and nothing slips through the cracks.
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Tackle low-hanging fruit first - When replying to emails, if a task can be completed in 2 minutes or less, do it immediately. Otherwise, mark the email as unread and move to the next one. This ensures that the majority of tasks are handled quickly, impressing 90% of people, rather than spending an hour on one lengthy response. It feels more strategic and productive.
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Prioritize high-leverage tasks - Focus on tasks where you’re the rate-limiting step—anything that’s waiting on your input to move forward. By prioritizing these, you ensure the entire team’s progress isn’t stalled. This high-leverage approach not only boosts your productivity but also increases the velocity of your team by minimizing downstream delays, where each bottleneck can compound delivery times.
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Take pride in velocity - Completing tasks quickly can be incredibly satisfying. That feeling of accomplishment motivates you to reinvent processes for greater efficiency. For example, throughout my career, I’ve identified repetitive, time-consuming tasks and explored automation to streamline them. This not only impressed my managers (it felt like magic to them) but also fast-tracked my growth. In today’s AI-driven world, automation is even easier to implement—you don’t always have to work smarter yourself; let AI do it for you.
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Communicate timelines proactively - If you ever feel overwhelmed with communications or tasks from multiple stakeholders, communicate timelines clearly. Don’t leave people guessing about when they’ll hear back from you—it’s frustrating and unnecessary. In my experience, people’s frustration with delays often stems from uncertainty, not the delay itself.
If a project takes longer than expected, inform stakeholders as soon as you know, and provide an updated timeline. Then, stick to it. For example, don’t wait until 11:59 PM to tell someone you can’t deliver by midnight. Let them know the moment you realize the deadline isn’t feasible. People hate surprises—unless it’s a party.
🗺️ Universal rule: There is no such thing as over communication.
Speed vs Velocity
You might have noticed that I’ve used the term velocity instead of speed. This choice was intentional. Speed is a scalar quantity, while velocity is a vector. Without delving too much into the technicalities, this distinction means that merely doing things faster isn’t enough to bring you success. What truly matters is doing things faster while maintaining output quality.
Far too often, in the pursuit of speed, people make critical mistakes—reports riddled with errors, emails sent to the wrong recipients, or decisions made in haste. These missteps undermine the very purpose of working quickly and should be avoided at all costs. The time compression you achieve is only valuable if the output is of the highest quality. Never compromise quality for speed.
I find it incredibly powerful to have velocity as my personal brand. Surprisingly, something so simple is an extreme rarity in the workplace. Once velocity becomes your defining trait, it can turbocharge your career, open new doors, earn you admiration, and even make you a role model at work. Once you make velocity your brand, you can outrun your destiny!
Velocity in business is the stuff of legends. Legend is rife about how super heroic founders and companies used time as a superweapon to achieve unparalled growth and victory. Take for example the Collison brothers, Patrick and John Collison, who early in their journey would ask for the laptops of those who were interested in trying Stripe and install it themselves on the spot rather than send them a link1 or Mark Zuckenberg, the Founder and CEO of Facebook, whose mantra2 ‘Move fast and break things..’ meant he shipped products which were far from perfect, but by prioritizing speed , got quicker and better feedback which made better products and a lot of money - also the reason why you probably hate every version of software that meta builds.
Beyond the business world, speed has often been the decisive factor in the outcome of wars. For instance, the infamous German Blitzkrieg strategy during World War II and Napoleon’s campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars both relied heavily on speed and focus to overwhelm enemy forces. I am not trying to convince you to go to war or build unicorn companies (though you are free to pursue your passion and purpose, and I whole heartedly support your choice). Infact, I want to convince you to adapt velocity as your brand to move ahead in your career.
Very early in my career, I noticed that most workplaces suffered from extreme slowness. People would take forever to reply to emails, complete projects on time, or demonstrate urgency—something that hardly ever came up in feedback reviews. Workplace culture neither rewards nor recognizes velocity, nor does it rebuke a lack of it. So, when I displayed even a semblance of urgency, it didn’t take much to gain popularity among my managers. Despite my limited skills, I managed to receive better reviews simply by being faster and more proactive than others. In my mind, this adversarially trained me to prioritize getting things done with speed.
I have noticed something quite contradictory to the model of how the corporate world worked. I naviely imagined the workplace to be full of hyper competitive teamfolks who are just spending every waking hour trying to outcompete you, when in fact, they were the most relaxed, careless beings. It’s not that they were
Draft
-> Personal brand is important and so is standing out
-> One feature that people usually notice right away but is underrated and almost oblivious is velocity
-> Velocity and not speed - direction of effort is extremely important. It needs to provide a positive net output towards the ultimate goal
-> When someone responds with speed - you hardly never fail to be impressed
-> It’s a signal that you are responsive (people don’t like to wait), shows you are organised
-> Most of the highly effective people are prompt because they are organised. You will be surprised how people who manage large teams are very prompt
-> The concept of cheng (as described in Certain to Win by Chet Williams and based on Boydian principles) is doing what is expected. When you do beyond what is expected, then it’s chi - surprising delight. So, in our day to day life, a consistent way to do chi is through velocity. Doing something at the speed of light is chi
-> It’s a habit you can cultivate
Very early on in my career, I noticed that the bar for being visible in the workplace was unusually low. As I transitioned from a non profit job teaching kids in an community on the outskirts of Pune, to a social impact company - my unusal and irrational fear of not knowing what to expect, was completely wiped out in the first few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, the place had fantastic folks who knew what they were doing, but for seemingly very little effort