Articles
The postponed decision has a cost. I write about it.
18 pieces in five columns. Each with its own page.
Column 1
The cost of not deciding
What the postponed decision costs.
The Caution That Costs YouI spent years postponing decisions and calling it diligence. Waiting for the right moment was my pretext, and it looked like virtue: it was not laziness, it was care…
The Decision Can Be Advised. The Consequence Cannot.The solitude of power is not born from the absence of people around you. It is born from the real boundary between advice and consequence. Partners, mentors, Board…
Not Deciding Costs More Than Deciding WrongThe Brazilian business owner is terrified of the wrong decision. He calculates, weighs it, asks around, sleeps on it. The decision that never gets made, no one fears…
The Power of Saying NoEveryone praises the one who says yes. Yes to the client, yes to the project, yes to the opportunity that showed up. Yes is likable, it opens doors, it avoids friction…
ProcrastinationProcrastination has become the lazy diagnosis of the moment. Every time something important does not get done, the blame falls on it, as if discipline were missing. In…
You Are Confusing Comfort With Strategy, and It Is Costing YouThe greatest risk is not leaving a structure. It is staying in it without questioning.
Column 2
Seen from inside operations
What operations teach before any theory.
Scaling Would Have Been IrresponsibleBetween 2013 and 2015, I was scaling the Gerardo Bastos auto repair network when I saw the bottleneck. Growing at that speed, the way things stood, would have been…
Does My Company Still Make Sense?Every company that lasts long enough reaches the point where the owner wakes up and asks whether it still makes sense. That is not weakness. It is the sign that either…
Oficinas Gerardo Bastos: The Largest Repair Shop in BrazilThe largest repair shop in Brazil started with someone who walked in without a place.
Do You Want to Be a Brand or a Price Seller?There is a decision every owner postpones because it sounds philosophical and is the most concrete one there is: are you going to be a brand or a price seller? Whoever…
Column 3
Two worlds that do not talk
Where the company and the owner decide with different logics.
Entrepreneur or ExecutiveThe corporate market has a ruler, and it measures the wrong thing. It measures how easy you are to classify, not how capable you are. And confusing the two is a decision…
The Entrepreneur and the Fundamentals of His Own BusinessThere is a loss that does not appear in the cash flow: the one that comes from what you do not know you are losing. And it is always born in the same place, in the area…
Column 4
Structural power, absent decision
When the structure exists and the decision does not show up.
The Wrong VariableSome time ago I brought here the variables that lock up energy investment in Brazil: interest rates, the exchange rate, module prices, import tax, the Fio B grid fee…
Brazilian Strategy Does Not Live in a ChairThere is a strategic decision sitting still right now in the head of some business owner in Brazil. Stalled for months. He calls it prudence. The 2029 balance sheet will…
Column 5
Where I started
The origin texts, in the voice of the time.
My Development: Where My Core Strengths Were BornBefore the titles and the negotiations, there was a workshop floor. It is honest to start there, because it was there, and not in a classroom, that my core strengths…
Strategic Choices: The Transforming Power of Continuous EducationIn a world in constant evolution, the entrepreneur and the executive share a fundamental principle: the commitment to continuous learning. The concept of lifelong…
How I Overcame Myself and My FearsFor 21 years, I built a safe career, working in the same place, with a well-defined succession plan and a salary that was comfortable for my reality. At 38, my life…
Fear of Failing or Fear of Giving Something Up?This subject was raised by a friend of mine, Gustavo Carriconde, and he had no idea how deep it really runs in my life. I told him I would write about it one day, but…