Hiring takes time. Marketing takes time. Sales take time. Development takes time. Networking takes time.
Any initiative we pursue will take time to achieve. But, take a page from Agile: this does not necessarily mean we need to completely finish one initiative before we start another. This also calls for a reminder that not every initiative needs constant attention and effort to progress.
Saying this in another way: if we want to gain the most benefit from the limited time and energy we have, we need to work on our pursuits in an efficient parallel.
We need to build and maintain pipelines.
For example, when you apply for jobs, chances are you’re instinctually applying instead of waiting on one opportunity at a time. This means that even if one opportunity falls through, you may have more already in the works and can keep things moving.
Another example is with product development. Barring the nuance of dependencies, generally you aren’t waiting for something to be fully built, QA’d, and launched before starting work on the next thing. At the same time a recent development is being QA’d, (hopefully) you developers are already working on the next thing to be QA’d.
By maintaining and sustaining pipelines for our pursuits, we make better use of our time and keep things progressing forward as best as we can. This ultimately results in better results in X period of time as opposed to what we’d achieve without pipelines.
Focus on building pipelines.