When a CEO knows they need to do something but keeps making excuses, the real problem isn’t the task. It’s the internal negotiation. Every ambitious founder eventually hits a moment where they can see the obvious next step—make the hire, fire the exec, ship the product, cut the initiative, confront the co-founder, raise the round, change the pricing—but they stall. They tell themselves they need more data. Or more time. Or more alignment. Or a little more certainty. They call it strategy. It’s usually avoidance.

The irony is that CEOs are decisive everywhere else. They move fast with product, investors, customers. But when the decision is personal—when it touches ego, identity, or the fear of being wrong—they slow down. They build elaborate rationalizations that sound thoughtful on the surface but are really a way to delay the discomfort.

Every CEO has a favorite excuse.
Some say they’re waiting for the “right moment.” There is no right moment. The moment you think you need usually only appears after you act.
Some claim they need one more data point. They don’t. They already have enough.
Some say they don’t want to hurt someone. They already are—by not deciding.
Some insist they’re being patient. They’re not. They’re hiding.

What’s interesting is that CEOs almost always know the truth in private. If you ask them directly, “What’s the decision you’re avoiding?” they say it immediately. There is no ambiguity. The mind protects them by creating stories, but the body knows. You can feel a delayed decision. It sits in your chest like a weight.

The longer the delay, the worse the cost. The team senses hesitation. Momentum drops. Talent leaves. Confidence erodes. The gap between what the CEO knows and what the CEO does becomes the company’s ceiling. You can always tell how fast a company will move by looking at how fast the CEO moves through discomfort.

The turning point comes when the CEO stops treating the decision as a technical one and admits it’s an emotional one. Once they name the real fear—looking foolish, disappointing someone, losing control, risking failure—the excuses lose their power. Action becomes simpler. Not easier, but simpler.

A helpful exercise is to ask three questions:

1. What’s the decision I already know I need to make?
2. What story am I telling myself to avoid it?
3. What would I do if I were the CEO of a competitor who didn’t have my fears?

Most CEOs make the right choice the moment they answer the third question. It breaks the illusion that the delay is rational. It reminds them that someone else—less talented, less experienced, less thoughtful—would move faster simply because they aren’t burdened by the same internal debate.

Founders like to believe they’re stuck because the path is uncertain. But uncertainty isn’t the barrier. It’s the price of the job. The real barrier is the quiet hope that the decision might resolve itself if they wait long enough. It never does. The longer they wait, the bigger it becomes.

The paradox is that once a CEO finally acts, they almost always say the same thing: “I should have done this months ago.” Not because the outcome was perfect, but because the drag of avoidance was worse than whatever followed.

The work of a CEO isn’t making perfect decisions. It’s refusing to let fear masquerade as thoughtfulness. The moment you stop negotiating with yourself is the moment the company starts moving again.

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