"We're either born sprinters or marathoners. The difference shows up in how we use our time, energy and focus to achieve results. Sprinters are built for speed and intensity. Their mindset is optimized for fast starts and quick wins - short, high-intensity bursts of effort. They prioritize immediate impact, make decisions quickly, course-correct often and measure success by how fast change happens."
"Marathoners, on the other hand, are built for endurance. They focus on consistency and long-term performance. They think in longer planning horizons, emphasize stability and scalability and measure success by sustained progress rather than spikes. We don't get to choose just one operating model. Our work demands that we take on the personas of both sprinters and marathoners. The real challenge is not to be both at the same time."
People in martech often confuse momentum with progress, leading to constant urgency. Work modes split into sprinters, who prioritize speed, quick decisions and rapid course-corrections for immediate impact, and marathoners, who emphasize consistency, long-term planning, stability and scalable outcomes measured by sustained progress. Effective performance requires alternating between sprint and marathon modes rather than attempting both simultaneously. High value work frequently begins with a deliberate pause to review what worked, what didn't and why, enabling clearer priorities, learning and more deliberate acceleration. Three practices — assessing time use, learning from failures, and making deliberate choices — help teams slow down enough to improve outcomes.
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