Leaders often feel a pull between speed and care. Cameron Herold and Meridith Kuba take it on in their book, Grandma’s Business Secrets, which turns old family sayings into rules for running a company. Their answer is short: do it right, and do it fast.
Shortcuts Make Long Delays
The book’s saying about shortcuts describes a familiar temptation. A team skips proper training, rushes a launch, or cuts corners on a project, and the work comes back as rework, lost customer trust, or bigger problems later.
The authors also address an obvious objection. They acknowledge the saying clashes with “minimum viable everything,” and they clarify what they mean. Slowing down means refusing to cut corners, and it does not mean moving slowly.
Where The Book Says Care Pays Off
Three sayings in the book point to the same habit of preparing before acting:
- Measure twice, cut once: check the details before a big decision
- If you have time to do it, you have time to do it right: build the system properly the first time
- Don’t put the cart before the horse: handle the basics before scaling
On the last one, the book gives examples of jumping ahead: launching a product before testing it, scaling before building a strong foundation, and pushing marketing before the operations work.
When The Book Says Move
Care has a counterweight in the book. The saying “strike while the iron is hot” argues that opportunities do not wait, and that hesitating too long can mean losing the window to a competitor.
Read together, the sayings describe two phases. Preparation deserves the extra effort, and once the timing is right, leaders are expected to act.
Bottom Line
Speed without checking creates rework, and checking without moving loses the opening. For a COO who owns launches and systems, the book’s rule fits both: do it right, and do it fast.
There are more sayings like this one in Grandma’s Business Secrets.
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